Could the Zoe app identify local Covid outbreaks?

In spite of the approval of one vaccine and the likely approval of at least two others, the government seems determined to push ahead with ‘operation moonshot’ — mass community testing along the lines of that being trialled in Liverpool. That is astonishing, not least because of the cost — put at £100 billion in one leaked document. There is also, as I wrote here a fortnight ago, the matter of the dismal accuracy of the lateral flow tests being used for community testing. It suggests that the government, for all the Prime Minister’s chirpiness this week, has little confidence that vaccination will put an end to the Covid pandemic any time soon. Otherwise, why spend such a fortune on testing for a disease that ought rapidly to die away?

But if it is necessary to carry on with mass surveillance for Covid-19, is there a cheaper way to do it? Since March, the public has been invited to sign up with the Covid Symptom Study App designed by healthcare company Zoe in association with King’s College, London.