SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22 , 2020. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ EE G3
many states still have struggled
to make their own apps. A newer
update, called the “express”
system, allows states to roll out
the technology with less effort.
(The state of New York launched
its system a few weeks ago for
less than $700,000.)
Engineers are still working,
too, on figuring out how to best
read the Bluetooth signals. To
start, they were tuned to
minimize potential false
positives. But now they’re also
learning about how the signals
respond differently when people
are indoors, outdoors — and have
their phones in their pockets in
either place.
“We are working as a
community to optimize it and to
figure out how to get those
settings to be in the right place so
that we do balance the risk of
false positives with the getting
notifications out to people who
are at risk,” says Jenny Wanger of
the Linux Foundation Public
Health, which has been helping
coordinate and provide tech to
governments.
A public health challenge is
also a marketing challenge. Lots
of people have to use this
technology for it to work, or even
to see what needs to be tweaked
to make it work better. Apple and
Google have been helping states
market it behind the scenes but
haven’t included it in their own
fancy product launches and TV
commercials (including the ones
dubiously promoting new
smartwatches as “the future of
health”). If they’re serious about
this tech saving lives, they really
ought to step up.
Even if participation is limited,
you could still benefit from
activating exposure alerts.
Oxford University researchers
say they think the alerts can be
helpful at all levels of uptake. It
doesn’t require the majority of
the population to reduce
infections and save lives.
[email protected]downloaded half a million times
in its first nearly two months.
“We do believe Bluetooth
exposure notification apps are
effective,” said Maggi Mumma,
deputy press secretary at the
state’s Department of Health.
The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention says it is
supporting research into the
effectiveness of phone exposure
notifications. “We are doing this
work to help states reach
conclusions and make decisions,”
said spokesman Jason
McDonald.
Other nations have reported
clearer success. In Northern
Ireland, as of the end of October,
more than 16,000 people had
received notifications to
quarantine after nearly 5,000
positive test results were entered
into its app, according to the
BBC.
In Switzerland, the first nation
to use this Bluetooth notification
system, academic researchers say
early data on people testing
positive after receiving
notifications suggests the tech is
making “relevant contributions
to pandemic mitigation.”
In Finland, where a third of
the population has the tech
turned on, it helped warn Prime
Minister Sanna Marin that she
might have been exposed, so she
went into quarantine.Q: Why isn’t it working
better?
A: This is new technology, and
there’s a lot that engineers and
health authorities are figuring
out as they go along.
The piecemeal rollout
embodies many of the challenges
in America’s coronavirus
response. Asking each state to
separately develop its technology
has been a hindrance at a time
when health departments are
strapped for time, money, tech
and marketing expertise. Apple
and Google developed the
underlying technology free, butphone would still be able to get
the alert.Q: Will the SafePass exposure
tracking app from Citizen
help?
A: Citizen, a popular security
app, released its own exposure-
tracking system called SafePass
that works nationwide. But
unlike the other exposure
notifications I’ve described here,
it isn’t being run by local
governments and requires people
to accurately self-report their
own coronavirus test results.
Citizen says its system has been
activated by more than 1.1 million
people. But in the past 30 days, it
has collected 130 positive
diagnoses and sent only about
200 exposure notifications.Q: Do Bluetooth exposure
notifications work?
A: The technology has now been
used by thousands of Americans
who tested positive for the
coronavirus to let others know
they might have been exposed.
What we don’t know is how many
people have received those
notifications. That number could
be very small.
Virginia, which has been
running its Covidwise app since
August, has the most experience.
As of Nov. 11, the state had more
than 770,000 participants — a bit
under 10 percent of its
population. Of those, 777 people
with the state’s app installed had
gotten a positive test, and just
488 of them had entered their
diagnosis in the system to make
alerts go out to others. Virginia
says it doesn’t know how many
people have gotten alerts that
they were potentially exposed.
“Virginia is pleased with the
continued upward trend in
downloads,” said spokesman Jeff
Stover. “However, we desire to
have the majority of the
population with the app on their
devices.”
Pennsylvania’s app wasQ: Which phones does it work
with?
A: You’ll need a phone that can
run recent software updates from
Apple and Google that enable
coronavirus notifications.
For Apple iPhones: The iPhone
6S (from 2015) and newer will
work, so long as it is running iOS
13.5 or newer.
For Android phones: You’ll
need Android version 6, which is
supported on phones dating back
to the Samsung Galaxy S5 (from
2014).Q: Does it work if I live in an
apartment building?
A: Bluetooth signals are not a
perfect way to measure exposure.
They can roughly measure
distance, but we know your
actual exposure risk changes a lot
depending on whether you are
indoors or outdoors, and whether
you and the person you’re
exposed to are wearing masks.
But so far, apartment living
hasn’t proved to be a major
problem for this technology.
Bluetooth signals can pass
through walls but don’t do it very
well. (Just try listening with your
Bluetooth headphones across the
other side of a wall.) The systems
have been tuned to emphasize
fewer false-positive readings —
meaning if you get an alert,
chances are you have been very
close to someone with a
coronavirus infection for a long
time.Q: What happens when I
travel or come in contact with
someone from out of state?
A: When states first launched
exposure apps, they were all
independent islands. But in the
coming weeks, most of them will
be able to work across state lines.
That’s thanks to a new national
repository of those positive-
diagnosis keys. So, say you live in
New York and were near
someone from New Jersey who
gets a positive diagnosis. Yourtested in Arizona, will let you
know if you’ve had as little as five
minutes of exposure.)Q: How are exposure
notifications not violating my
privacy?
A: I’m usually the first person to
caution that we shouldn’t trust
corporations or the government
with our sensitive personal data.
But after investigating the data
flowing out of these state-
sponsored apps and services, I
haven’t found much danger in
having them on my phone.
Here’s why: These systems
don’t log your phone’s location.
Instead, they use the clever
Bluetooth system that helps
phones remember what people
you were near without knowing
where you were.
The person receiving an alert
doesn’t know whom they were
exposed to, or even when exactly
it happened. Even government
health authorities don’t learn
that (which some of them aren’t
happy about, because it would
help them with contact tracing).
It’s all anonymous.
Exposure alerts also won’t be
turned on without your
permission. The software that
makes them work is part of
recent upgrades to iOS and
Android, but it won’t activate
until you tell it to.Q: Should I turn exposure
alerts on if my state doesn’t
support it?
A: It won’t hurt to use a different
state’s alert system, but it might
not help, either. A bit like masks,
you won’t get much benefit from
the exposure alerts unless the
people around you also have
them turned on. And if your l ocal
health department doesn’t
support the system yet, you’ll
have no way to report your own
positive diagnosis to warn others.
(Doing that requires a special
code from your health
department.)As of Nov. 17, 15 states and territories, plus D.C., supported coronavirus exposure alerts.
Here they are, along with links to instructions from the local health authorities.Alabama: GuideSafe (guidesafe.org)
Colorado: CO Exposure Notifications (covid19.colorado.gov/Exposure-notifications)
Connecticut: Covid Alert CT (portal.ct.gov/coronavirus/covidalertCT/homepage)
Delaware: Covid Alert DE (coronavirus.delaware.gov/covidalert)
Guam: Guam Covid Alert App (guamcovidalert.guam.gov)
Maryland: MD Covid Alert (covidlink.maryland.gov/content/mdcovidalert)
Michigan: MI Covid Alert (michigan.gov/MICOVIDAlert)
Nevada: Covid Trace (nvhealthresponse.nv.gov/covidtrace)
New Jersey: Covid Alert NJ (covid19.nj.gov/pages/app)
New York: Covid Alert NY (coronavirus.health.ny.gov/covid-alert-ny)
North Carolina: SlowCovidNC (covid19.ncdhhs.gov/slowcovidnc)
North Dakota: Care19 Alert (ndresponse.gov/covid-19-resources/care19)
Pennsylvania: Covid Alert PA (pa.gov/covid/covid-alert-pa)
Virginia: Covidwise (vdh.virginia.gov/covidwise)
Washington, D.C.: D C Can (coronavirus.dc.gov/dccan)
Wyoming: Care19 Alert (covid19.wyo.gov/care19-app)And these states have either announced their intent to launch services or are running
limited tests:Arizona: CovidWatch at the University of Arizona (covid19.arizona.edu/covidwatch)
California: COVID Notify at University of California campuses (covid19.ca.gov/notify)
Hawaii: A lohaSafe Alert (alohasafealert.org)
Oregon: Oregon Exposure Notifications (covid.oregonstate.edu/exposure)
WashingtonHow to get coronavirus exposure alerts where you live
your location — by using the
Bluetooth wireless technology in
phones.
Exposure alerts worked for the
governor of Virginia, Ralph
Northam. He and the first lady
tested positive for the
coronavirus in September, and
because they had it working on
their phones, staff members
exposed to them got notified.
And they’re picking up steam: In
its first few weeks, Colorado’s
system was activated by a million
residents, or 17 percent of its
population.
So why aren’t our phones a big
part of America’s coronavirus
response? For starters, each
state’s local health department
has to develop and operate its
own system (though they’ve
recently begun making them
work across borders). Privacy
concerns about similar-sounding
— but actually very different —
contact-tracing apps have
needlessly scared people away.
And frankly, Apple and Google
buried the settings and apps
you’ll need, bungling what could
have been the year’s most-helpful
tech launch.
You don’t have much to lose, so
you might as well turn exposure
alerts on. It takes less than five
minutes to set up, and this guide
will help.
Q: Where are coronavirus
exposure alerts available?
A: As of Nov. 17, 15 U.S. states and
territories, plus D.C., support
coronavirus exposure alerts:
Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut,
Delaware, Guam, Maryland,
Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey,
New York, North Carolina, North
Dakota, Pennsylvania, Virginia,
Washington, D.C., and Wyoming.
Arizona, California, Hawaii,
Oregon and Washington state
have either announced their
intent to launch services or are
running limited tests.
Nations around the world are
also using similar Bluetooth
technology for notifications,
including Switzerland, Ireland,
Northern Ireland, Scotland and
England.
Q: Do I need to download a
separate coronavirus app?
A: That depends on where you
live and what kind of phone you
have.
Most states have made their
own exposure notification apps
that walk you through the steps
of turning on alerts and — should
it be needed — entering in your
own positive test result.
In some other places,
including Colorado, Maryland
and D.C., there’s no app required
for iPhones. Instead, you might
get a push alert on your phone
suggesting you turn on alerts,
which is known as the
“notifications express” system. If
you missed that, you’ll need to go
to Settings, then scroll down to
Exposure Notifications and turn
them on. (This won’t work for all
states.)
Q: How do exposure
notifications work?
A: You set it and forget it until
you, or someone you’ve been
around, gets a positive
coronavirus test. That’s all you
really need to know. Every once
in a while you might get a
notification just to remind you
the system is still running.
Behind the scenes, your phone
is constantly sending out little
Bluetooth chirps. There’s not
actually a sound, but the chirps
contain an anonymous,
constantly changing code that
can be picked up by other phones
you come near. The signals are
also used to approximately
measure distance. The stronger
the Bluetooth chirp, the closer
two phones are to each other.
Your phone is also listening for
the chirps coming from other
phones, keeping a rolling 14-day
log of all the phones you come
near.
Don’t worry. In my tests, all
this chirping and listening isn’t
much of an additional drain on
your battery. But it does require
you to leave your phone turned
on to at least sleep mode.
Q: How do you get alerts?
A: If you’ve had the alerts turned
on and end up getting a positive
test, you should tell your local
health department. The
authorities will give you a unique
code, or key, to enter into your
phone.
Entering the code sends out a
kind of bat signal, letting other
phones know to check if, and how
long, you were in contact.
If there was close contact —
usually within six feet for 15
minutes or more — then the
phone will pop up an alert
recommending a course of
action, including getting a test.
(Some systems, such as one being
APPS FROM G1
GEOFFREY A. FOWLER
Activate the coronavirus alert tech hidden in your phone
GEOFFREY A. FOWLER/THE WASHINGTON POST
Nevada’s coronavirus exposure app displays an alert. Most states have made their own apps that walk you through the steps of turning on alerts and — should it be needed
— entering in your own positive test result. The alerts use software built into iPhones and Android devices to detect when people get into close contact with each other.