NBC News reports that in various parts of America, “States that had committed to using contact tracing apps or expressed interest are now backing away from those claims.”
The few states that have rolled them out have seen only tepid responses. And there are no indications of any momentum for the apps at a national level… A survey of state health officials from Business Insider this week showed that only three states — Alabama, North Dakota and South Carolina — said they were going to use the software provided by Apple and Google. The number hasn’t grown since the same three states reported interest last month, and none has launched an app with the Google-Apple software…
Even the World Health Organization has piled on. “Digital tools do not replace the human capacity needed to do contact tracing,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a briefing this week, adding that more evidence was needed and that the WHO would convene experts to share information…
A handful of states — North Dakota, South Dakota and Utah — launched apps without the support of Apple and Google, but none saw widespread adoption. More states, including Washington, have considered doing so or have launched test versions, and it’s possible that apps will gain momentum closer to the fall, when they might be taken up by more employers, schools and universities and at related football games.
Two months ago Google and Apple announced a joint project to build a contact-tracing app — which was supported by the governor of America’s most populous state, California. But now a spokesperson for California’s public health department tells NBC News that the state isn’t currently using any apps or cellphone tracking technology.
“Most of the contact tracing work (notifying people who have been in close contact with an infected person to prevent the disease from spreading to others) can be done by phone, text, email and chat.”
of this story at Slashdot.
Source:: Slashdot