When middle and high school students go back to campus, they’ll have the option to wear a lanyard that keeps track of social distancing, alerting students when they get too close to each other.

Source: Gervais SD to provide wearable COVID-19 tracing devices for students, staff | News | kptv.com

This is almost certainly a Bluetooth device that uses signal strength to judge distance. This is a very unreliable technology. Worse, the school will review each device at the end of the school day to identify any students who were in “close proximity” to another student for “too long”.

Remember smart phone contact tracing apps? Notice they have had no meaningful impact on reducing Covid-19 spread? This is the same thing but as a dedicated device.

I’ve previously described all the technical problems with these devices – and literally, one year later, smart phone and Bluetooth-based contact tracing has accomplished nothing. So let’s roll it into the schools where the CDC now says 3 foot – not six foot – spacing is just fine.

Sigh.

Coldstreams