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Apple releases new Covid-19 app and website based on CDC guidance
- not_good_coder 7y agoSo they made a Survey Monkey website. Not awesome.
- neilpanchal 7y agoWe need a bluetooth tracker of sorts that can alarm people if they get too close. Only Apple (or privacy focused) companies can do this responsibly, without uploading any data and keeping everything in the secure enclave. Messages over bluetooth are encrypted and simply contain nothing but the proximity data. But there is a problem: 1. If you're already showing symptoms, you're gonna isolate yourself 2. Coronavirus spreads during incubation period. Giving access to contacts is the only way to get traceability even then you meet and greet people who we don't keep in the contacts (Grocery store clerk).
- blattimwind 7y ago> We need a bluetooth tracker of sorts that can alarm people if they get too close. Why do you need an app and Bluetooth for this, don't you have eyes and ears lmao
- Austin_Conlon 7y agoWe need them to rush those augmented reality glasses so we can maintain distance with the Measure app!
- neilpanchal 7y agolol, I just realized that it's useless because people spread before they even know.
- finaliteration 7y agoI don’t think it’s as ridiculous as it sounds. Eyes and ears don’t work around corners in grocery stores, and not everyone has an intuitive sense of what 6 feet of space looks like. Even people who are virus free and/or asymptotic should keep their distance from others. Also - What about people who are hard of hearing or have limited/no vision? A vibration could help them not be at risk if they have to be out.
- cbhl 7y agoTwo meters straight-line distance because that's how far your sneeze travels. If it's around a bend, then someone's sneeze isn't going to hit you; it will hit the wall first.
- finaliteration 7y agoI mean more in the scenario that you’re about to turn a corner and someone is standing there. Maybe if you got an alert you would wait and let them pass or take a different route.
- dogma1138 7y agoI don’t know what corners you usually take but the average side walk has plenty of space to turn a corner without getting into someone’s face. Don’t hug the wall and you’ll be fine.
- jhayward 7y agoIt's not about sneezing. Real-world experience is showing that just breathing is enough to transmit the virus. The news report about 45 people at choir practice testing positive is just one episode [1] [1] https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1243331922903908352 https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1243331922903908352
- xfitm3 7y agoNo thanks. This is a social problem, not a tech challenge.
- neilpanchal 7y agoSingapore is doing it: https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-03-24/coronavirus-singapore-trace-together https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-03-24/corona...
- keiferski 7y agohttps://www.citylab.com/life/2017/04/singapore-city-of-sensors/523392/ https://www.citylab.com/life/2017/04/singapore-city-of-senso...
- onion2k 7y agoThat's for tracing who came in to contact with one another after the fact. It wouldn't stop people coming in to contact, and it's far too late for contact tracing to be effective for Covid-19 now anyway.
- mshroyer 7y agoOn the contrary, contact tracing (plus widespread testing) will be necessary in places where outbreaks are eventually brought under control and life slowly starts returning to normal. Of course, many places will need extensive lockdowns to reach that point.
- OrangeMango 7y ago> it's far too late for contact tracing to be effective for Covid-19 now anyway I think you are right about this and furthermore, non-optional bluetooth tracking is just going to encourage people to leave their phone at home when they go out, especially if they are on the fence about whether or not they are a danger. If they need something they are going to go get it. We need a rapid cultural adjustment that causes people to voluntarily minimize spreading.
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- lstamour 7y agoApparently COVID-19 is only a problem in the United States, because I can’t download this app from the Canadian App Store. I understand there might be legal issues involved, but it’s still a bit of a disappointment.
- WaylonKenning 7y agoThough you can access the website from Canada.
- Austin_Conlon 7y agoWebsite is here https://www.apple.com/covid19/ https://www.apple.com/covid19/
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- chapium 7y agoSource please. I don't appreciate my govt behaving this way but I am also skeptical.
- cbhl 7y agoBoth the Federal and Provincial governments have comparable self-assessment tools on their websites. This doesn't appear to be much more sophisticated than that: Here's the Federal self-assessment: https://ca.thrive.health/covid19/en https://ca.thrive.health/covid19/en Ontario: https://covid-19.ontario.ca/self-assessment/#q0 https://covid-19.ontario.ca/self-assessment/#q0 BC: https://bc.thrive.health/ https://bc.thrive.health/
- dorian-graph 7y agoFor the UK, this is the most popular one: https://covid.joinzoe.com/ https://covid.joinzoe.com/
- chapium 7y agoRequires sign in and ios 13.1. I feel like this is a nudge from them and not completely altruistic.
- machello13 7y agoWhat? You don't need to sign in to use the app or the website.
- cloudwalking 7y agohttps://www.apple.com/covid19/ https://www.apple.com/covid19/ doesn't require either of those things.
- chapium 7y agoMy phone says otherwise.
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- floatingatoll 7y agoI was not required to sign in to anything to download and use this app, either on iOS or the website. Please clarify?
- chapium 7y agoMy bad, the website works. I absolutely get a prompt on the app store to sign in, and a prompt to update to ios 13.1 (which is not available to download, presumably because iphone6)
- floatingatoll 7y agoWait, you're saying "Apple requires me to sign in with an account to use the App Store". Yes, that's completely correct, and absolutely normal for iOS since year 1 day 1. Nothing Covid-specific there.
- chrisoakman 7y agoThis is very similar to https://CheckForCorona.com https://CheckForCorona.com The team at Luminare (https://luminaremed.com https://luminaremed.com) has been working with epidemiologists and doctors from Harris County and the City of Houston to build out a screening tool to help prioritize public testing. We are doing about ~10k screenings per day and ready to ramp up as more testing becomes available: https://checkforcorona.com/harris-county https://checkforcorona.com/harris-county We are providing this tool free for any hospital or public health organization that needs it. Please reach out if you have any connections!
- kohtatsu 7y agoI wish the privacy policy linked to a site-specific one, not the generic /legal/privacy. Perhaps they couldn't get lawyers in time. Edit: oh, if you start screening there is a site-specific one if you click "Learn more" next to "Your answers will not be shared with Apple or the CDC without your permission."? https://www.apple.com/covid19/ https://www.apple.com/covid19/
- ChrisArchitect 7y agoboring, not much to this. I suppose another avenue to access the same information (how many hundreds of sites telling ppl to social distance for weeks) is fine but the assessment tool is what, a Q&A form using same path as gov sites are already using in Canada, UK etc...open sourced forms too Shrug apple marketing.
- threeseed 7y ago> Shrug apple marketing It's a standard press release.
- HeavenBanned 7y agoA lot of people would love to have an all-in-one app that can assuage fears on what to do next amidst a potential slew of symptoms. You can even tailor it to answer questions for a loved one. Not sure what’s so “Apple marketing” about it aside from genuinely caring about people during this time of crisis.
- divbzero 7y agoContact tracing [1] is difficult in the middle of a pandemic from a cost-benefit standpoint. [1]: https://www.who.int/features/qa/contact-tracing/en/ https://www.who.int/features/qa/contact-tracing/en/ But if we succeed with strong enough measures to suppress COVID-19 within a few months, contact tracing will be critical to reduce the risk of rebound as we reopen our society. I propose that Apple and Google together gets a head start on contact tracing. Singapore released the TraceTogether app (Android, iOS) for its citizens, but ideally we could have a tool deployed by default in Android and iOS. Does anyone know if Google and Apple are working on this? (Apple’s Find My solution — with public keys broadcast and collected whether phone/GPS is on/off — might contain the right building blocks for contact tracing. But I’d leave it to top engineers at Apple and Google to build a better solution than what I can come up with alone.)
- Alex3917 7y ago> Does anyone know if Google and Apple are working on this? It would probably illegal to create an app for contact tracing. E.g. it's legal for Apple to have an iPhone app called Reminders, but if they were marketing it as a tool to help people to remember to take their medication then that would be illegal because it hasn't undergone testing to prove that it increases medication adherence or whatever. That's why the FDA banned doctors from using checklists to remind them to wash their hands before surgery.
- graeme 7y agoThat’s the sort of regulation that needs to be relaxed in an emergency.
- reaperducer 7y agoif they were marketing it as a tool to help people to remember to take their medication then that would be illegal because it hasn't undergone testing to prove that it increases medication adherence or whatever I doubt those little plastic M-T-W-H-F-A-U pill organizers went through any FDA clearance. /Some days when I wake up, that's the only way I know what day it is.
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- CoffeeDregs 7y agoDidn't know that Apple was working on this. I'm not a huge Apple fan but they certainly did the right thing by not telling Trump (of whom I'm neither a fan nor a hater) or by having a strong NDA to cover the work so that it couldn't be announced...
- reaperducer 7y agothey certainly did the right thing by not telling Trump At the bottom it reads, "Developed With CDC, The White House, FEMA"
- dogma1138 7y agoApple has likely spO2 data as well as heart rate data form millions of Apple Watch users that can be used to partially diagnose this infection. The watch is capable of measuring spO2 even if it’s not displaying the information and even if it’s no 100% accurate drops over a large enough time period combined with elevated heart rate would indicate a respiratory infection. Whilst I agree that the data isn’t useful for most individuals releasing it to authorities around the world after anonymization would likely be quite valuable. I might have had a mild infection don’t know if it was COVID-19 but it was A respiratory infection for sure. Myself and my girlfriend were sick she had a fever I barely registered above normal we had coughs, sore throat I still can’t smell smoked salmon and she has stomach issues too. It’s pretty much all gone now but one thing for sure we both had pretty high resting heart rate, as high as 110 during the worst of it. My normal awake resting rate is around 65, it’s still around 80 despite all symptoms going away and trying to do some pushups today I realized that I’m extremely weak despite not feeling bad. I usually do 5 sets of 20 pushups (controller, full range of motion) with a 50lbs resistance band today I felt myself gasping for air after 8-10.
- cbhl 7y agoI was under the impression that Apple Health is designed so that Apple itself doesn't have access to this data, even in aggregate. Is that not the case?
- Shank 7y agoThat's the case. The only way that they would get this is through a research study with explicit consent/opt-in.
- dogma1138 7y agoWith the current legal limitations yes, but even with an opt-in they likely would get enough data to be valuable to researchers especially if people also opt-in to share location data.
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- vortico 7y agodeleted
- camillomiller 7y agoUnless they were apps from a trusted source, such as an official app from CDC, this is the proper course of action.
- chabes 7y agoStill no widespread testing..
- pouta 7y agoHere in Portugal, 2500+ volunteers are building solutions for the virus. From arranging free housing for medical staff to a self assessment app. If your government is slow to deploy tech solutions, I urge you to unite, bootstrap the project and hand it over to the government as soon as it gets enough traction. If you want to help Portugal, you can join in https://tech4covid19.org https://tech4covid19.org
- TheDesolate0 7y agoThey should have picked a credible source of information. I can't believe I'm typing that about the CDC...
- throwaway829 7y agoAny suggestions for other sources?
- lostlogin 7y agoWhat has happened with the CDC that I have missed?
- cogidub 7y agoSuggesting masks are ineffective protection was a bad start.
- enumjorge 7y agoIts great that US companies are trying to help during times like these, but it feels strange that companies are filling in the gaps left by American government. Like why do we have a Google website with CDC information and an Apple website with CDC information? Why not have a single place that we send people? It seems like we should have a single, cross platform app/website that is CDC branded versus Company X branded.
- throwaway829 7y agoThat's been available for quite some time: https://www.coronavirus.gov/ https://www.coronavirus.gov/
- lostgame 7y agoI, for one, would love to volunteer my health information from my Watch to help - if it’s possible that it would help in any way.
- yesimahuman 7y agoExplains why Apple seems to be blocking all other COVID-19 related apps. We’re seeing most people in our ecosystem (Ionic) turn to deploying their apps as PWAs in the short term
- MBCook 7y agoSure. Apple is after all that free app money from their free app. It can’t possibly be because their app was developed with government guidance and they have no reasonable way to auditing all the 3rd party apps for accuracy and safety in a reasonable timeframe.
- yesimahuman 7y agoThat’s exactly what I mean. In the last few weeks they seemed to be blocking most independent apps that tried to do something similar. Now their official app is out and their stance makes sense. Not sure how you took my comment to be a reference to anything revenue or free related and your sarcastic tone is unwarranted.
- jimnotgym 7y agoWhy does this need an app? Apart from a web browser, of course.
- jclardy 7y agoBroader reach, Apple has this as the top story when you tap on the App Store. Plus a smoother/more consistent UI on their own platform. The website works fine on mobile but the app is way better.