One more short thread about how #COVIDAlert played out, in part to explain more explicitly why I don't think anyone was really "wrong" here, given their respective circumstances. But it's really worth understanding what we can and should do about those circumstances. So: (1/n) (This thread will make more sense if you've read the original blog post and/or the previous thread on this topic, both here:

https://twitter.com/aaronsnow/status/1539725685589266432

)

Tl;dr: I believe the primary reason why #COVIDAlert (and the many sibling apps in the U.S.) didn't meet expectations starts with the fact that the process of reporting an infection into the app depended on a huge, highly fragmented web of health and test result providers. 1/

https://twitter.com/aaronsnow/status/1539674610970640384

Before the prevalence of at-home tests, there was enormous diversity in the "last mile" of test result delivery into patients' hands: in-person, texts, phone calls, paper reports, websites, hotlines. That diversity was not managed, and was probably unmanageable, centrally.