Immune, the meaning of the number of downloads

Partly out of necessity, part out of modesty, but also out of transparency: when it comes to Immuni, it must be specified how the number of downloads cannot be a binding element in the app's judgment. There was an error in terms of communication, because in the initial stages the attention was focused on this aspect and, of course, this aspect remained central when the detractors of the app pointed out the flattening of the curve of growth of those who downloaded the application daily.



In response to a question from Boldrini (PD), Paola Pisano wanted to take stock of the matter. Everything happens after a dutiful and sincere awareness: the number of downloads is low, below the set targets. However, this does not mean that the app does not work, nor that it cannot produce results. It simply means that its effectiveness decreases more than proportionally and that a climate of greater enthusiasm around the project could have further helped the strategies for contagion containment.

Think of the outbreaks that have emerged in our country in recent weeks and to the investigation effort to which the ASL have been subjected (emblematic case is the cluster of Savona, where the outbreak broke out in a restaurant but led to the precautionary isolation of over a thousand people): Immuni could help and improve you work in such situations, giving resources to public health through the simple collaboration of an app that operates autonomously by tracing nearby bluetooth networks.

The answers of Paola Pisano

The Pisano clarifies this point: "Immune" is not the solution, but it is a tool that can help you and that will be useful when the risk of a second wave will be concrete: “ I never said that the application is the only solution to the containment of the virus. In Italy, the application is part of an overall strategy that also relies on other measures of containment. Of course, the more you will expand the dissemination of the application, the more it will be known and the more it will be able to help facilitate the actions of contrast to the coronavirus “.

Why in the resumption of the activities, and also in tourism, better to download @immuni_app to increase the safety of all. My answer to the question of the Pd in the Senate https://t.co/0L5tdeHeOx pic.twitter.com/irIOt3u3Ih

— Paola Pisano (@PaolaPisano_Min) July 24, 2020



But, above all, the Pisano takes a few things to pinpoint the issue quantitative:

The problem is to identify the threshold “x” or “y” to download to assess the effectiveness or otherwise of the application. When I repeat that the university of Oxford has scored 60 per cent of the minimum threshold of utility of the instruments of notification of exposure to Covid-19, I wonder why you do not read never the next period of the study in question. Let me quote, as reported by the Massachusett's institute of technology review: "Many reports and analyses of the media have taken a sentence from the report, which reads as follows: "our models show that we can stop the epidemic if about 60 percent of the population uses the app ". But they have regularly failed to make the second half of the sentence: "Even with a lower number of users of the application we consider, however, a reduction in cases of coronavirus and deaths"". Finally, an appeal: I wish to Conclude: we want to Italy to start again with all the effects, from places of work, school, tourism, vital to our Country, and does so in safety. The more we are the more we will be to download “Immune” and the more we will be able to turn off potential new outbreaks with benefits for all of us.