The Digital Covid Test That Nearly Was

These are notes that I wrote during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. I've published them a few years later.

By now, you're probably sick and tired of shoving a swab up your nose and / or down your throat. You've grown blasé about the little medical marvel as it reacts to whatever antibodies are flowing laterally. You don't even bother reading the paper leaflet any more. Right?

But that swab test wasn't the only option on the table.

One of the (many) tasks our team was looking into was how to make the experience of taking the test more digital. Instead of black-and-white pamphlet, how about... AN IPHONE APP an interactive website? It could show you videos of exactly what to do! It could have a built in timer to remind you when to check your results! It could have multiple languages - including British Sign Language! AMAZING!

Sure, there would be a cost to producing and updating it - but making it easier for people to take accurate tests could save lives. And that'd be worth it, right? We wrestled with several different ideas and sketches of prototypes. Testing them to see if they were actually useful. In the main, they weren't.

But this wasn't the only digital process we were considering. One proposed Covid test was digital. I don't mean there was a circuit board examining your results. I mean digital - as in it used your finger.

I placed the tiny needle, safely trapped in a plastic sheath, against my forefinger. "With a quick stabbing motion," read the leaflet, "prick the skin." I did so. I suppose the best thing I could say about the experience was that it was a different kind of pain to the brain-piercing horror of the nasal swab. *shudders*

The leaflet continued, "Milk three drops of blood from your finger." I had to pause for a moment. "Milking" blood isn't high on my list of super-funtime activities. Nevertheless, I persisted and managed to spill just enough of the red stuff into the provided capsule.

What was the next step? I looked at the leaflet. "PTO"

So I grabbed the leaflet, flipped it over and stared vacantly at the blood-stained mess.

Ah.

There were many reasons - so I am told - why the finger-prick tests weren't widely rolled out. There was significant cost, the risk from sharps was hard to manage, and people simply didn't like cutting themselves to bleed. It didn't matter how much more accurate the test was - if you can't convince people to take it regularly, it isn't worth it.

Also, it was messy.

Would a whizzy digital service to accompany it have helped? Perhaps a video from a friendly face with a reassuring accent to calm your fears? Gently smiling as they sliced into their fingers? Probably not. People would have just ended up with blood-soaked iPhone screens.

Ew!