Apple COVID-19 screening tool introduces anonymous data sharing
Apple has updated its COVID-19 screening app with an option to anonymously share information with the company plus health authorities to improve the app and gather data about coronavirus.
Credit: Apple
The COVID-19 screening tool, which shouldn't be confused with the Apple-Google Exposure Notification API, was released in March as an educational hub for coronavirus information.
As noted by TechCrunch, the new update allows users to anonymously share data with state public health agencies and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), along with Apple.
That includes a user's age, symptoms and other data that Apple says will be used to improve the COVID-19 screening app and to help health officials better understand the virus.
Apple makes it clear that this data is shared in a way that won't personally identify users. It'll also be aggregated as an additional privacy mechanism.
The COVID-19 screening tool is meant to help users stay informed by answering questions about recent exposure and symptoms and reading guidelines from the CDC. It's been updated with new features and information several times since March. Past updates added self-care tips and updated COVID-19 symptoms.
Apple developed the tool, which is also available as a website, in collaboration with the CDC and the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
Credit: Apple
The COVID-19 screening tool, which shouldn't be confused with the Apple-Google Exposure Notification API, was released in March as an educational hub for coronavirus information.
As noted by TechCrunch, the new update allows users to anonymously share data with state public health agencies and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), along with Apple.
That includes a user's age, symptoms and other data that Apple says will be used to improve the COVID-19 screening app and to help health officials better understand the virus.
Apple makes it clear that this data is shared in a way that won't personally identify users. It'll also be aggregated as an additional privacy mechanism.
The COVID-19 screening tool is meant to help users stay informed by answering questions about recent exposure and symptoms and reading guidelines from the CDC. It's been updated with new features and information several times since March. Past updates added self-care tips and updated COVID-19 symptoms.
Apple developed the tool, which is also available as a website, in collaboration with the CDC and the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
Comments
I'm done with wearing masks, unless they are required when I enter certain stores. I just carry one in my pocket and I'll put it quickly on if I need to enter certain stores. I remove it as soon as I leave. The mask is just for show.
It's a joke that the same companies that are preaching social distancing are also supporting mass gatherings and protests. They can't have it both ways and they have shown that they are full of crap, and that includes Apple.
No app wlll ever be downloaded on any of my devices. Even if the virus were to return for a second wave in the fall or whatever, then I will not be listening to any of the so-called "experts" or the clueless and hypocritical authorities anymore. Their jig is up.
I followed the idiotic guidelines for a few months, but I have now cancelled those guidelines and they are no longer in effect for me.
What others decide to do is their concern and their problem.
It’s not a joke, you’re just completely ignorant. Again. Simply look at the data... Almost twice as many Americans have been killed by covid as in the Vietnam war. Globally we have a 5.5% mortality rate (400k dead from 7.2 million cases). What part is difficult for you to understand? Oh yeah, the science part.
My brother and his wife, early fifties, no major issues, were hospitalized and nearly died. You’re just pretending it’s not a big deal because it hasn’t happened to you. The very definition of ignorance.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries
The only idiots are the ones who flunked science and rage out on their keyboards instead.
Actually they didn't. They acknowledged that some assumptions were made based on modelling. But the current statement that asymptomatic people are rarely infectious is based on hard data from detailed, documented contact tracing -- and "secondary infections from asymptomatic people were rare". And, while it needs verification and further illucidation, it still is best available evidence.
The WHO was smeared, not discredited. Its what the Liar in Chief does when he's in trouble. But, there's a minority who will believe anything and everything he says.
I agree, that it's ignorant to claim that COVID is a myth but come on, it's also ignorant to tell that "we're all gonna die" if we don't stay at home while relying on such biased sources like Vox.
Some facts:
1. Don't forget about millions of asymptomatic cases. 25% - 80% of COVID positive cases are asymptomatic.
It tells us, that there's way more than 7M cases, thus bringing down the death rate significantly.
It's easy to track deaths, because, you know, you've got a dead body. But it's waaaay harder to accurately track cases, especially while there are so many asymptomatic.
(https://www.healthline.com/health-news/50-percent-of-people-with-covid19-not-aware-have-virus#This-makes-masks-more-important)
2. The death rate is different among age groups. If you're over the age of about 30 your chance to die of COVID starts getting higher. If under 25, higher chance to die from flu.
(https://freopp.org/estimating-the-risk-of-death-from-covid-19-vs-influenza-or-pneumonia-by-age-630aea3ae5a9)
3. 35%-75% deaths occurred in nursing homes (% varies in different states, according to different sources. Even highly biased NYT admits that third deaths occurred in NY nursing homes)
Let's be meaningful about the data we consume. COVID is no joke, but also not a "threat to our civilization".
"Filter" information you consume from the media.
Peace ✌️
EDIT: typo.
Who can trust WHO?
It isn't a joke for the people impacted, certainly. The problem is more the scale of that impact, vs the reaction (and scale of the implications).
https://twitter.com/boriquagato/status/1267174557976166402
Yep, and that would be mostly the media, and certain scientists with agendas. The data, aside from a lot of uncertainty, is out there and reasonably good. It just doesn't tell the story the alarmists are telling.
And, that's including the fact that the horrific early models caused a lot of leaders to do THE EXACT OPPOSITE of protecting the most vulnerable. If it weren't for the Science™, MSM-hyper-inflation and scare-mongering, and de-platforming of reasonable minds, the death toll would likely be considerably lower. (And, that's not counting the massive death-toll to come.)
Even in the US, hospitalizations and deaths are consistently dropping, have been for weeks.
Yep, I get that. And, they don't care much about other impacts either, even if they cause more deaths. That's why their job should be to inform policy makers, who are getting similar information on other factors, and combining it all. They shouldn't be running the show.
Didn't they buy into the bad HCQ studies? Was that because it aligned with good science, or because it fit the political agenda? And, why didn't they tell us what was going on in China?
I somewhat agree here. BTW, the testimony in this episode on the whole mask issue is sad, but informative, and infuriating:
https://congressionaldish.com/cd215-covid-19-testimony/
This guy tried to warn them over several administrations that this would happen.
While it is true, as I pointed out, that public health officials tend to be concerned about public health rather than personal health, at least they are providing (hopefully) unbiased, evidence based advice. (Admittedly, even that failed here in the U.S. as politicians threatened and intimidated scientists from already badly weakened agencies running without sufficient data or resources.)
"Not only is it not gone*.....
Even China, where the virus was brought under control weeks ago -- with only handfuls of new, mostly imported cases, knows it is not over and, instead of trying to hold employers harmless for the deaths of its workers is working to protect the health of those workers and students (and all of its citizens). Instead of leading people to believe it is over, they are ramping UP testing:
"Last month, Wuhan tested around 6 million people over 10 days"
"Unlike many countries, tests are widely available in China"
"Chinese organizations bought 257 PCR laboratories in the last 30 days,... compared with an average of 21 per month in the previous 12 months. Those figures represent a fraction of the total"
Outbreak quashed, China launches test lab spending spree
The healthcare system was never really in any kind of threat to begin with, aside from maybe a couple spots in a couple major cities. Most of the healthcare system in the USA is in danger from the opposite problem.
The worst of the problems seem to have come from the UK, not the USA. If the world hadn't overreacted to that idiot's models (with a long track record of them), we'd probably have halved the deaths.
Look, I'm happy for good scientists, but not when it all becomes political and/or greedy. That was clearly the case with Covid.
Like encouraging people to hug Chinese people and hold parades in Chinatown? The whole thing was a political shit-show. I'm not sure if Canada ever did actually shut-down flight from China, and Trump doing so was labeled as racism, while the Democrats tried to virtue-signal.
I'm sure there are some great people working with/at WHO, but the leadership is a joke. I'm not sure they will be taken seriously again until they fix that.
Then there's British Columbia where I live (you know, where Vancouver is located w/ about 1/5 the population of NYC) where we're down to 12 new cases and no deaths for several days... less closed down (and later) than a lot of places in the USA.
The big difference? I'm certainly no expert, but if I had to guess, I'd say we did a better job of protecting the vulnerable. We quickly put into place protections on elderly homes, etc. (which I think are generally pretty good to start), instead of housing our Covid-patients there. And, the government put some programs in place to allow people who needed to to stay home (they could have been a LOT better, but it was a fairly good response).