Covid-19: Apple and Google’s tracking system flops
Apple and Google offer a tracking solution at the level of iOS and Android for Covid-19. Countries can use it to create applications like TousAntiCovid (which is not the best example given that France uses an in-house solution). But it turns out that the success is not at the rendezvous, even at all.
No success for the API of Apple and Google in connection with the Covid-19
the Washington post investigated the US case and shows that many US state apps do not use Apple and Google’s system. They could be tempted to relaunch the adventure in view of the Omicron variant, but most will do nothing in this direction.
Myoung Cha was responsible for strategic health initiatives at Apple when the Apple and Google Exposure Notification API was created. On Twitter, he spoke more about the development of exposure notification technology. He reports that the pace at which Google and Apple developed their APIs was a “Speed record for software development”. Myoung Cha and other representatives from Apple and Google have worked closely with federal and state governments to deploy the technology, but the decentralized approach to healthcare in the United States has proven to be too much. great challenge to take up.
“The Biden administration, when it came to power, relied almost all its strengths on vaccines as a quick fix to beating the virus”, laments Myoung Cha to the Washington Post. “I think it was strategically the biggest mistake”.
The defense of Apple and Google
More than 20 US states are not using Apple and Google’s API for Covid-19 at all, including large states like Florida and Texas which have reported millions of cases and tens of thousands of deaths . Even in states where millions of people have notifications turned on, only a fraction of people who test positive for the virus report it to Apple and Google’s system. The California system, for example, has been activated on more than 15 million devices, but only about 3% of the roughly 3.9 million cases reported since its launch have been recorded in the system.
Apple and Google have decided to defend their system with a joint statement:
We created the Exposure Notification System to assist public health authorities during this historic pandemic, while preserving privacy. We are proud to collaborate with public health authorities and provide a resource – used by millions of people around the world – that has helped protect public health.
