Thermometer Gun
Have you been “shot” in the forehead yet by a laser thermometer gun? If not, it’s nearly certain that you will have this experience soon.
Many, many businesses across all industries, and other organizations such as government departments, are looking at remote temperature sensing as part of their strategy for reopening once the level of C19 testing allows it. They plan to scan employees, certainly, but some will also be aiming those guns at the foreheads of customers and visitors.
The Washington Post has a piece on the civil liberties implications of this suddenly widespread checking and monitoring.
I find the images of authorities taking the temperature of compliant subjects to be more than a little disturbing. (Some of the images below come out of Asia and date from early February; others are recent.) I have a suspicion this forced temperature capture will be with us possibly for years to come.
[Note added 2020-05-19] Please read this in-depth ACLU white paper if the subject of remote temperature monitoring vs. civil liberties piques your interest.
[Note added 2020-07-04]The NY Times ran a piece today by its videographer on the uncertainty in remote temperature sensing. It has useful video examples from a FLIR infrared camera.
Boston Globe
Foley.com
New York Times
The Star (Myanmar)
New York Times
The coming ubiquity of temperature-checking as a proxy for possible C19 illness makes even less sense in light of recent reports [1] that a high temperature is far from a universal marker of infection by the virus.
“…while the CDC does list fever as the top symptom of COVID-19, so confidently that for weeks patients were turned away from testing sites if they didn’t have an elevated temperature… as many as 70 percent of patients sick enough to be admitted to New York State’s largest hospital system did not have a fever.”
[1] https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/04/we-still-dont-know-how-the-coronavirus-is-killing-us.html