The Daily News: June 19, 2025

What if the next pandemic could be stopped before it even begins? Well, today we’re talking about how smart watches could help track and prevent the spread of viral infections before symptoms even appear. By monitoring heart rate, skin temperature, and respirations, smart watches could provide an early warning system that prompts users to isolate before they unknowingly spread disease. In fact, a new study shows that wearable devices can detect infections like COVID-19 and the flu with up to 90% accuracy days before a person even knows that they’re sick. Here’s why that matters. Research shows that nearly half of COVID-19 infections were spread by people before they even felt sick. But if smartwatch users got an early alert and reduced social contact researchers estimate that transmission rates could be dropped by 40 to 65% even in everyday situations and during a pandemic. Well, if enough people received and acted on these alerts, researchers say we could stop an outbreak in its tracks. The potential goes so much further than just COVID-19. As machine learning improves, smart watches could help distinguish between different illnesses from the flu to even bird flu, or HIV. One researcher explained it this way. People trust wearable devices while they’re not yet diagnostic,they could make measures like lockdowns, mass testing and mask mandates more precise and less of a blunt instrument. So what’s next? Well, some experts believe governments should consider providing smart watches to help monitor public health. Technology is changing so rapidly and being able to use early detection might just change healthcare forever. So would you wear a smart watch for early illness detection? Let us know in the comments, and if you found this information helpful, don’t forget to like, subscribe and hit that notification bell. Thank you so much for joining us on the Daily News.