A British security agency says it is giving up on high-tech solutions to the pandemic in favor of Covid-19 detecting sniffer dogs — because they are a “softer touch.”

Already deployed at Helsinki airport and in airports in the United Arab Emirates,  researchers say specially-trained dogs can sniff out a person infected with Covid-19 within seconds  — and with almost 100% accuracy. “The results are great,” said Jonathan Ratcliffe, director of the UK security company Guards, during a phone call. Ratcliffe is advocating for the use of dogs in shopping centers and airports. “With the right deployment I think dogs would be really good: they're a lot less intrusive and negative.”

As countries across Europe stumble into second lockdowns, a series of ever more high-tech and innovative solutions to the pandemic have been fraught with problems. The rollout of Covid-19 tracking apps around the world has had limited success: the UK had to scrap its first version and start again after it turned out the app was incompatible with iPhones and would be a disaster for user privacy. 

France’s StopCovid app was only downloaded by a fraction of the population and managed to flag just a few dozen risk contacts. China’s color-coded health-tracing system has added a new layer of security and data collection to what was already a surveillance state, and has meant those without smartphones  — or the ability to use them  — have been locked out of vital public services, like buses and stores.