Czech trainers teach dogs to sniff out Covid: 95-percent success rate

Where is the study? I couldn&#x27;t find the link. &quot;95-percent success rate&quot; is meaningless without context. Specificity&#x2F;sensitivity, prevalence and the gold standard used all matter. You, too, can detect coronavirus with 100% &quot;success&quot; (and much higher than 100% that depending how you calculate it).<p>bool carriesCoronavirus(human *subject) {return true;}

Here in Finland authorities use them at least in the airport and it’s claimed that “testing has shown an accuracy level of nearly 100% even 5 days before actual symptoms appear” [1].<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;unric.org&#x2F;en&#x2F;finland-first-in-europe-to-use-dogs-to-detect-covid-19&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;unric.org&#x2F;en&#x2F;finland-first-in-europe-to-use-dogs-to-...</a>

Interesting, I am Czech and I only hear about it here on HN. But it is plausible, Czechs reeeeally like dogs and love to train them.<p>I wonder if an artificial nose could be constructed doing the same thing. Smell is a potential diagnostic tool.<p>For example, it seems that certain people can smell Parkinson&#x27;s disease and that the biomarkers have actually been identified:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.acs.org&#x2F;content&#x2F;acs&#x2F;en&#x2F;pressroom&#x2F;presspacs&#x2F;2019&#x2F;acs-presspac-march-20-2019&#x2F;sniffing-out-parkinsons-disease.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.acs.org&#x2F;content&#x2F;acs&#x2F;en&#x2F;pressroom&#x2F;presspacs&#x2F;2019&#x2F;...</a><p>We are not very good, as a civilization, in artificial smelling. Being humans, we develop machines that try to &#x27;see&#x27; and &#x27;hear&#x27;. A canine civilization would probably develop a smell-distinguishing AI first.

It would be nice if reporters were required by law to define exactly the numbers behind statements like &quot;95% success rate&quot;. Under penalty of being sent to live on an iceberg for violating it.

&gt; Vlachova said the Czechs would like to work together with the Finns or with French and German teams working on similar projects.<p>&gt; Unlike their western peers, the Czech team works in its free time and relies on scant financial means provided by a local dog food maker.<p>This is the kind of cooperation where Europe could really shine. It&#x27;s not big pharma or financial money abstraction, it&#x27;s something people can relate to.

I have a deep skepticism about sniffer dogs. This article by the National Narcotic Detector Dog Association just about sums it up:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;nndda.org&#x2F;the-double-blind-attack&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;nndda.org&#x2F;the-double-blind-attack&#x2F;</a><p>&gt;While the scientific community highly endorses double-blind testing, it can have disastrous effects on canine teams. As there is no way to determine whether the canine responded correctly at the time of the alert, the question is, should the handler reward the canine? This is a vital question due to the fact that detection canines are largely trained on a fixed ratio reward system where the canine is rewarded immediately for almost every correct response.

Similar approach taken in France[1] not that long ago. What seems interesting here is the fact that France uses Malinois dogs, which seems a bit odd. They are insanely trainable and smart(I am saying that as someone who owns a working line Malinois) but their noses are nowhere nearly as effective or sensitive as say terriers(which is what they have gone for in Czechia). I&#x27;m guessing it&#x27;s a &quot;work with what we have already&quot; situation but still curious to know if there is something more to it.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.france24.com&#x2F;en&#x2F;video&#x2F;20201103-researchers-train-sniffer-dogs-to-detect-covid-19" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.france24.com&#x2F;en&#x2F;video&#x2F;20201103-researchers-train...</a>

As cool as this development is, I can&#x27;t help but think about how this could be grossly abused and used as another means of detaining or abusing certain populations state or federal gov might not like. &quot;Pointing&quot;, or the provable technique of eliciting a &quot;positive&quot; detection response from a detection animal, has long been a huge point of contention for use of drug dogs during traffic stops - especially in California and Illinois. A huge proportion of these stops also involved the use of &quot;pointing&quot; drug dogs to lead to egregious 4th amendment violations.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.chicagotribune.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;ct-xpm-2011-01-06-ct-met-canine-officers-20110105-story.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.chicagotribune.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;ct-xpm-2011-01-06-ct-met...</a>

Of course, when a random PR declares they have trained a ML to detect Covid with 95% accuracy, the public answer is &quot;Why are governments not doing this?&quot; .<p>But whenever another random PR declares they have trained a dog to detect Covid with 95% accuracy, the public reply is skepticism.

Apparently, the Miami Heat (NBA) are also using dogs to screen fans for coronavirus. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.espn.com&#x2F;nba&#x2F;story&#x2F;_&#x2F;id&#x2F;30770833&#x2F;heat-use-coronavirus-sniffing-dogs-screen-fans" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.espn.com&#x2F;nba&#x2F;story&#x2F;_&#x2F;id&#x2F;30770833&#x2F;heat-use-corona...</a>

I wonder what dogs&#x27; ability to detect general sickness is. It would be good to have a control with other sicknesses.

Depending on how accuracy is defined 95% might be a bad result, as for all imbalanced class problems

Dog catches Covid, sniffs and passes it to person of interest, smells on Covid said person.

Slightly bizarrely, I was wondering yesterday if this might be possible.<p>I suspected it probably would be, but logistics would be a problem - because you would need a <i>lot</i> of trained dogs+handlers to match the current need for tests.

just a question, because this virus came from bats and now infects minks and humans: why should dogs be exempt from spreading or getting infected with it?

I&#x27;d be somewhat worried that the dogs get or spreads covid..

This makes the avenue for detecting covid the same avenue for getting it. Covid is transmitted through breathing which is just a less aggressive form of sniffing.<p>Thus the doggo would get covid then spread it to everyone he sniffs.

Lies, it&#x27;s actually 94.643