Terence Eden

🆕 blog! “So, farewell then COVID-19 App”

Today is a day of mixed emotions for me. The UK's COVID tracing app is finally closing. The app was, by any reasonable measure, a success. A team of experts at the Pandemic Sciences Institute at the University of Oxford and Department of Statistics at the University of Warwick estimate the NHS COVID-19 app prevented […]

👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/04/so-farewell-then-covid-19-app/
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#covid19 #nhsx #OpenSource

So, farewell then COVID-19 App – Terence Eden’s Blog

Apr 27, 2023 at 11:35amShare on Mastodon
Show threadSimon Zerafa (Status:   😊)Apr 27, 2023

@Edent

I spend much of a year working part time on NHS Wales Track and Trace and that was successful.

The local authorities did all the work and recruited local staff and council employees to do it.

Show threadbenhallApr 27, 2023
@Edent congratulations and great post!
Show threadSam Sneddon 🏳️‍⚧️Apr 27, 2023

@Edent so, survived about a year longer than NHS Scotland’s app.

did the NHSX one cover more than just England, or is the “UK” below just wrong? 😜

Show threadTerence EdenApr 27, 2023

@gsnedders
The United* Kingdom.

* Some exclusions apply. See back of country for details. This information also available in Welsh.

Show threadbazcurtisApr 27, 2023
@Edent Thank you.
Show threadFinal Round Player 😷🇪🇺🍸Apr 27, 2023

@Edent There was a moment there when England, Wales, Scotland, N Ireland, Republic of Ireland all had an app based on the Google-Apple Exposure Notification API. So did most of Europe and most of the states in the USA. At least some of them interoperated.

The wikipedia page needs an extra column for the deployments that have been closed and when. There's not many left.

Now what?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_Notification

Exposure Notification - Wikipedia

Show threadpenguin42Apr 27, 2023
@jbond @Edent Thank you! But something I don't understand; why were there so many independent applications across countries/principalities/etc when many were open sourced; why weren't most just small changes from each other?
Show threadTerence EdenApr 27, 2023
@penguin42 @jbond It's a mix of sovereignty of decision making, national security, and local needs.
It is surprisingly complicated to make a one-size-fits-all app.
Show threadLars Marowsky-Brée 😷Apr 27, 2023
@Edent @neil This is also the last week for Germany's #CoronaWarnApp - which was also successful, widely lauded as an exemplary public-private sector Open Source collaboration.
Because, of course, we no longer need any way to trace infections diseases population-wide.
This all makes sense and is not ridiculous.
Show threadDavid CorneyApr 27, 2023
@Edent Thank you for the app and for the blog posts. Both very helpful in their own ways!