February 12, 2021
Dear Students, Parents, Faculty, and Staff,
Over the past few months, Loomis Chaffee students enrolled in Scott MacClintic's classes Introduction to Manufacturing, Problem-Solving, and Entrepreneurship and Problem-Solving for the Common Good have been working with researchers from the Yale School of Public Health on the implementation of a Bluetooth-based contact tracing system. You can read more about the students' work with Yale in an article we wrote this fall.
Contact tracing is a disease control strategy that identifies the close contacts of infected individuals so they can take measures, such as quarantine, to minimize the further transmission of the disease. This is an effective strategy, but it is dependent upon the affected individual's memory, which may not always be reliable and complete. In order to improve contact tracing, Yale researchers have developed a Bluetooth-based device (a dongle) that can increase the speed and accuracy of traditional contact tracing. Loomis Chaffee and The Ethel Walker School will begin piloting the use of this dongle system on our respective campuses in the next two to three weeks. This project has been endorsed by the Connecticut Association of Independent Schools.
Students, faculty, and staff will be provided with a dongle that they will carry with them throughout the day. The dongle collects proximity information to other dongle users. That information is encrypted and will only be accessed if a person tests positive for COVID-19 and that person gives permission for the Health Center and COVID-19 Coordinator to access the data. If permission is granted, we will be able to identify those individuals who are close contacts with the COVID-positive individual. A close contact, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is "someone who was within six feet of an infected person for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period starting from two days before illness onset (or, for asymptomatic patients, two days prior to test specimen collection) until the time the patient is isolated." More information about the dongle, including who has access to information, can be found below.
Contact Tracing Device Pilot Program FAQs
The Yale School of Public Health researchers who have been involved in this project will join Scott MacClintic, director of innovation at Loomis Chaffee, for an informational webinar on Tuesday, February 16, 6–7 p.m. EST. We invite parents, students, faculty, and staff to attend. Members of the Ethel Walker community will also be in attendance. The webinar will be recorded and made available on the portals on Wednesday. Registration is required.
Informational Webinar Registration
We hope that all Loomis community members will choose to participate in the pilot program. Following Tuesday's webinar, we will send faculty and staff a link to an online consent form. Students will be asked to provide assent using an online form that they will receive next week. Parents who do not want their children to participate can opt them out of the pilot by contacting me at mary_liscinsky@loomis.org.
We are excited about this contact tracing system because it will provide more complete information when we need to conduct contact tracing while also providing a high level of data security and privacy because the device does not collect personal information. We hope to see you at the webinar next week.
Mary Liscinsky
The Loomis Chaffee School • 4 Batchelder Road • Windsor, CT 06095 • 860.687.6000
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