Myths and methodologies: Degrees of freedom – limitations of infrared thermographic screening for Covid-19 and other infections

Abstract

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 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes the coronavirus disease (Covid-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 the development of an alternative method that may prove to be more sensitive.