North Dakota, Wyoming, and Alabama are all launching contact tracing apps that take advantage of Apple and Google's Exposure Notification API to cut down on the spread of the coronavirus, reports Reuters.
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North Dakota's app, Care19 Alert, is launching today, while Wyoming plans to launch an app on Friday. Alabama's app, which has been in testing with university students and staff, will market its app statewide starting on Monday.
Virginia earlier in August became the first U.S. state to debut an app that uses the Exposure Notification API when it launched COVIDWISE. Virginia state department health official Jeff Stover told Reuters that 316,000 people have downloaded the app so far.
Washington and Pennsylvania are two other states that are expected to launch contact tracing apps that use the Exposure Notification API in the coming weeks. Right now, many of these apps are not designed to work across state lines, with North Dakota's app being the first in the U.S. to support the functionality.
The apps are designed to limit the spread of the coronavirus by using Bluetooth to track who people come into contact with. The idea is that when a person comes down with COVID-19, an alert can be sent out to everyone they were around so those people can quarantine and watch out for symptoms.
Multiple countries, including Switzerland, Latvia, Italy, Germany, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Ireland, Croatia, Denmark, and Canada have also launched apps that use the Exposure Notification API.
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Top Rated Comments
Speaking of political, it's worth noting that solid blue states have yet to release exposure notification apps, further adding to my frustration.
Where’s the app from the federal government developed with input from the states? We don’t have one. Trump is apparently too busy doing who knows what to give the order for the CDC, the NIH or both to work together to do even basic things like this. That’s not a political statement, that’s a fact. What a disaster...
Second, No one is talking about centralized tracking. As I stated in my above post the tracing is completely decentralized and anonymous. The app should be pushed to every phone though and the paranoid people who don't understand how tracing works given a way to opt out. Centralized management of a pandemic is the only way to accomplish the desired results. You seem to be confused about the difference between decentralized anonymous tracking and centralized management and consistent guidelines. If you decentralize the management you get conflicting guidelines and confused citizens. If you centralize tracking there is the potential for abuse. That's why a central management and decentralized anonymous tracing is the optimal way to manage this pandemic. Are we clear now. Or you still fuzzy on the whole good - bad thing?
Finally, Just an FYI, if the government wanted to track you with a phone, they don't need this app to do it. They already can.
a federal level provided app would be incredibly useful.
but the good news is that with the latest revisions to the google/apple api itself that google and apple have made to it recently, there is available the option for the individual level health agencies at state level (and internationally among countries) to share results.
so yr own state can opt in for sharing its data with other states if there is enough pressure put on the state's health officials to do it.