Digital epidemiology, deep phenotyping and the enduring fantasy of pathological omniscience

Epidemiology is a field torn between practices of surveillance and methods analysis. Since the onset COVID-19, epidemiological expertise has been mostly identified with first, as dashboards case mortality rates took centre stage. However, since its establishment an academic in early 20th century, epidemiology’s have always impacted on how diseases are classified, knowledge collected, what kind was considered worth keeping analysing. Recent advances digital epidemiology, this article argues, not just quantitative expansion scope, but qualitative extension analytical traditions. Digital epidemiology enabled by deep phenotyping, large-scale re-purposing any data scraped from exhaust human behaviour social interaction. This technological innovation need critical examination, it poses significant epistemic shift to production pathological knowledge. offers revision key literature budding underline extent which envisioned redefine classification understanding disease ground up. Utilising tools science technology studies, demonstrates disruptive expectations built into surveillance. Given sweeping claims radical visions articulated field, develops tentative critique I call fantasy omniscience; vision data-driven engineering seeks capture resolve illness world, past, present future.