...Scientists are now wondering whether wearables like the Apple Watch or Fitbit fitness tracker might do the same for infectious disease. After all, such devices track not only your steps but many biometric data points including heart rate. In cases of Covid-19, changes to heart rate often appear long before more noticeable symptoms, such as a fever, and also show up in cases where the infected individual exhibits no symptoms at all.
This means that wearable devices could act as critical early warning systems, predicting and helping prepare for the next wave of a disease that has infected more than 8 million people globally.
... The Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute says its platform can predict coronavirus-related symptoms as far in advance as three days before they show up, with 90% accuracy. And Michael Snyder, a Stanford geneticist who’s leading the university’s study, shared early results with Bloomberg Businessweek that showed heart rate anomalies showed up in one case nine days before any detectable symptoms.
Heart rate, he said, is stacking up to be a very good indicator of the virus: “You can’t miss that signal,” he says.
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