disease tracking iphone app

A disease-tracking iPhone app.

I'm tossing this one in the ridiculous iPhone app category. A new application, Outbreaks Near Me, allows neurotic concerned citizens and moms to pinpoint outbreaks of disease, like the swine flu, in their area.

Created by researchers at Children's Hospital Boston in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab, users can track diseases in their area in real time. (Because you really need this information then and there.)

And by all means, if you come down with some scary communicable disease, plug it in so your phone can tell everyone!

Yes, I'm being sarcastic, but I just don't think this does anything but feed public fear. Let the epidemiologists do their job and let me raise my kids without the fear that danger may be lurking around the next corner all the time.

Would you ever download this application? Could this really help protect you and your family safe on a day to day basis?