Sign up for our daily briefing
Make your busy days simpler with Axios AM/PM. Catch up on what's new and why it matters in just 5 minutes.
Catch up on coronavirus stories and special reports, curated by Mike Allen everyday
Catch up on coronavirus stories and special reports, curated by Mike Allen everyday
Denver news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Denver
Des Moines news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Des Moines
Minneapolis-St. Paul news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Twin Cities
Tampa Bay news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Tampa Bay
Charlotte news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Charlotte
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
For all the attention on Apple and Google's joint effort to help track COVID-19 exposure, adoption of the technology in the U.S. has been limited, especially compared to other countries.
Why it matters: The companies' exposure notification technology could augment the labor-intensive work of contact tracing that experts say is key to controlling the spread of a disease for which there is no treatment or cure.
- As NBC News reported Sunday, even some of the states that expressed support for the project have yet to move forward with apps, with others saying they have no plans to leverage the technology.
The big picture: There are several reasons adoption in the U.S. has been slow. As with many other aspects of addressing the coronavirus crisis, federal health authorities have left the choice whether and how to use exposure notification technology to individual states.
- Handling things at the state level forces each state to at least partially reinvent the wheel, all at a time when scarce tech resources are stretched thin.
Between the lines: It's unclear how many Americans would voluntarily use such apps, given a cultural aversion to government tracking as well as significant portions of the population who don't believe COVID-19 is a significant threat and refuse to wear masks or take other steps.
- That's despite the fact that Google and Apple have made the technology as simple and privacy-preserving as possible.
Go deeper: Apple, Google deliver test code for virus-exposure tracking