Your smartwatch knows you’re sick before you do – could wearables prevent the next pandemic?

Your wearable might just be the new pandemic early warning system.

You wake up feeling fine and are about to go and make coffee. However, your smartwatch buzzes with an alert – it detects the early signs of an infection. It highly recommends isolating, but you’re expected to attend a very important event in person in two hours – what do you do?

Sounds like one of those unrealistic hypothetical situations? Well, it might be true soon, as a recent study has shown that smartwatch information detected proactively could help stop a pandemic before it even begins.

Scientists from Aalto University, Stanford University, and Texas A&M have found that wearable technology could help recognize with very credible accuracy if you’re coming down with a virus – 88% accuracy for COVID-19 and 90% for flu.

Helping people avoid social contact is the name of the game, as that helps avoid the spread the vast majority of the time.

Many diseases, such as COVID-19 itself, are most contagious in the early stages – before we even realize it.

A simple alert to isolate or take a diagnostic test sounds like a game changer on paper. The question is, however – would people actually follow such a recommendation?

Smart alerts, dumb choices?

Currently, around 30% of US adults use wearable devices. With this popular adoption rate, along with the advanced monitoring of heart rate, respiration, and skin temperature – governments could potentially utilize smartwatches to be much more proactive than mandatory masks and testing kits, as with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Would smartwatches be able to change the fact that between 66–90% of us reduce social contact after we feel sick?

Human nature is very reactive, and some may simply ignore warnings, distrust the technology if they feel fine, or prioritize convenience over caution with routine behaviors like continuing to go to work or going out to do grocery shopping.

Oh damn, I forgot my mask – oh well!

Prevention or paranoia?

It’s hard to imagine a switch-up in the mindset of society whereby the norm is to be told you’re ill before you realize.

But in the case of another pandemic, we could prevent a mass lockdown and instead have personalized, targeted situations.

It may even increase our communication with each other as we gauge the effect our movements and actions have on others; as opposed to a one-size-fits all ruling from your local governors.

If you cast your mind back to 2020–2022, the situation with Covid cases and public policy would have varied from Myrtle Beach to Madagascar, so objectivity needn’t be saved for locale – but also the individual.

Imagine the pressure eased on healthcare systems simply by taking the initiative when tech already has.