Degrees of freedom: Limitations of infrared thermography for screening for Covid-19 and other infections.

Mekjavic, Igor B; Tipton, Michael J

Around the planet, in many different scenarios, skin temperature is being used as a surrogate measure of deep body (core) temperature in the assessment of whether an individual is infected with the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes the coronavirus disease (Covid-19, or C-19), as indicated by the presence of fever. The key question is whether this is a valid methodology. If it is not, we run the risk of falsely excluding individuals from places they may want, or need, to go. We also run the risk of falsely allowing people into places where they can spread the undetected infection they have. In this review, we explore these and associated questions. We establish the limited utility of the current methodology for the mass screening of individuals for Covid-19 related fever using infrared thermography. We propose an alternative method that should be more sensitive. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.