For about a month now, Ive had the governmentsofficial COVID Alert appinstalled on my phone.
It is active and monitoring.
Thats good news but it isnt too surprising.
First of all, I work from home and barely leave the house.
But I do so occasionally to get a haircut and buy some groceries.
Both of those steps lower the chances of the app doing its job.
It’s free, every week, in your inbox.
They have to know about it.
They have to remember to download it.
And they have to remember to set it up.
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Its difficult to show someone an effective app when there are few people in your bubble.
But they will still need an official app if they want to report a COVID-19 infection.
Now we need those very same companies to step in to get the app to go viral.
They have levers to do this.
Or maybe Apple or Google could offer incentives right in their app stores.
Can we ensure people personally benefit after installing the app?
A recovered COVID-19 patient donates blood in Panama City in May 2020.
Those most in need will likely get it first, but the majority of us will have to wait.
What if people could jump ahead in the queue based on how many months theyve been using the app?
Nonetheless, well also need to worry about entering COVID-19 infections into the app as well.
(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Canadas privacy laws dont allow that.
But we can do better.
For instance, we could at least have the option for something other than self-reporting.
Alternatively, there might be a way of pushing that result in their app with their permission.
But if we use nudges and other pushes, we can overcome some of the friction.
As school begins, this is even more critical.
As we head into a second wave, the rest of us should install it immediately too.
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