Governor Cuomo Says State’s COVID Enforcement Could ‘Make a Big Difference’ – Did He?

Two months ago, the state launched the NY COVID Alert app, which Gov. Andrew Cuomo told New Yorkers could have a big impact on slowing the spread of the virus. “It took a lot of it, and it’s really creative and smart, and I think it can make a big difference,” Cuomo said during his October 1 press briefing.

But since then, Cuomo hasn’t mentioned the app in more than a dozen briefings, and in the past two months, only 800 people have been made aware of potential COVID-19 exposure through the app. There have been more than 180,000 new COVID infections during that time, according to the state.

About 1.1 million New Yorkers have downloaded the app, or about 5% of the state’s population, a far cry from the 60% adoption rate researchers find preferable, although later research has suggested. that any level of adoption can curb COVID cases. 2,700 New Yorkers diagnosed with COVID-19 had the app on their phones at the time, state officials said.

“It’s really a very, very small percentage of positive cases,” said Dr Denis Nash, an epidemiologist who teaches at CUNY’s Graduate School of Public Health. “There does not seem to be any real systematic strategy for obtaining [the app] to a large number of people so that it can really have the coverage and impact it promises. “

Listen to Gwynne Hogan’s report on WNYC:

Jonah Bruno, a spokesperson for the state’s health department, said the agency was promoting the app on social media platforms and had not explained why the governor had not mentioned it since October 1.

City Council Member Steve Levin, one of the first app launchers to help contact tracers, highlighted Canada, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been on national television to encourage downloads of the app from monitoring of the country’s contracts. About 5.5 million Canadians, or 14% of the population, downloaded it and more than 6,800 people with COVID used it to warn anyone they approached an exposure.

“I would really like the mayor to mention it every time they talk about COVID,” Levin said. “It’s something very simple that anyone can do. It takes two seconds.

According to officials in the state of New York, Bloomberg Philanthropies and some federal money paid the $ 700,000 needed to develop the app, and all digital publicity for the app was given. In order for a person who tests positive for COVID-19 to notify anyone they have come into close contact with through the app, they must speak to a contact tracer, get a code from them, and then enter that. code in the app.

This code unlocks a chain reaction, sending notifications to anyone with the app who has been close to you for at least 10 minutes, encouraging them to get tested. Of the 2,700 people with the app who tested positive for the virus, 900 entered the unique code into the app, which sparked the chain reaction, state officials said.

The New York app uses the same Bluetooth technology developed by Apple and Google, now used in COVID apps for more than a dozen states, Canada and several European countries, with varying degrees of success. Concerns have been raised about the accuracy of Bluetooth technology, as well as who has access to smartphones.

East Asian countries such as Singapore and Taiwan, which have more masterfully controlled the spread of COVID-19, have used digital surveillance to a much higher degree, alongside other more invasive methods of controlling movements of people. In Taiwan, for example, cell phone data is monitored to make sure you stay in quarantine, and if it is detected that you are gone, you could face fines of $ 33,000 or even sentences of. jail.

NY COVID Alert supporters insist the New York app was designed with privacy in mind, though some digital privacy experts have raised concerns that law enforcement could assign the contact search records (this is not only about the app, but also manual contact search). A bill passed by the state legislature would protect those documents from law enforcement, but it has been waiting for Cuomo’s signature since July.

The app does not use GPS to track locations, but relies on Bluetooth technology and does not collect identifying information. He knows if two phones with the app have come close, but not where they are. Julie Samuels, Executive Director of Tech NYC, helped coordinate development and deployment for NY COVID Alert.

“There are a lot of things we are doing to reduce the number of COVIDs that are inherently difficult. It’s easy, ”she says. “What will make this thing successful is more people download it.”