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Last night, in the courtyard of the Palazzo Chigi, while Italy was close to 12,000 daily infections and the Prime Minister listed the (mild) measures to contain the second wave of the virus on live television, the Immuni application died. Never mentioned. Never. As if it didn’t exist. As in the first wave. But when it really did not exist.
We started talking about it at the end of March when we hit the record for daily deaths from Covid-19: almost a thousand. Then, a committee of experts created by the Minister of Innovation established the rules for the launch of an application to track the contacts of the infected and slow down the spread of the virus using a technology that we all always have, our smartphones; citing some experiences of apparent success, the contact tracking All over the world it seemed like the promised land to get to to get out of confinement. In April, Google and Apple announced that they would change their operating systems to allow all countries to develop an application quickly. At the beginning of June the Italian was ready, one of the first in the world: it was even well done. It was a way, the best way, to avoid the second wave, but today the data says it, everyone says it, it is honest to admit that Immuni did not work. Or rather: the application works, but the system that it should have activated does not work: the Ministry of Health never wanted to connect the contact notification with a positive right to make swabs immediately, but making that notification the beginning of an unacceptable bureaucratic quarantine; many regions have deliberately decided to ignore its existence, boycotting the necessary link with the health authorities; too many GPs have decided not to enter the respective patient’s positivity data into the app citing non-existent reasons of time and thus blocking the ability to automatically track infections. All this translates into an unequivocal expression: it manifests uselessness.
These things have only come out in the last few days, but those who could prevent them have known it for a long time: it was the data that said there was no relationship between the almost nine million Italians who downloaded Immuni and the ridiculous number of contagion notifications. (about five hundred). They knew the government and did nothing to avoid conflicts with the Regions that have the last word on health, but in the meantime Italians were asked to make a courtesy gesture and download the application. A joke that we all pay the bill today. Contact tracing is clearly bypassed: with the third day in a row above 10,000 infections a day, it’s impossible to track everyone’s contacts. Or rather, it would only be possible using technology that makes tracking automatic, instant, secure and confidential. It would be possible using an app. It would be possible with Immuni. But it was decided to abandon it. Until last night’s press conference where she was completely ignored. To the point that the essence of the measures required of citizens to contain the virus – masking and social distancing – is identical to those used for the 1918 pandemic.
It is not comforting, but you cannot help but notice that in other countries it has not been much better than in Italy. Unbelievable not being able to track the virus correctly in an era where all our movements, all our contacts, all our intentions, are tracked via smartphones.
But that is not all. The game with the virus is still long, longer than we are willing to admit. We may still have time to fix things: but does anyone in government have the courage to try to make Immuni really work? If there is a time to say it is now.
