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Warning message from the Corona-Warn-App: Worn mask not taken into account
Photo: Bernd Weißbrod / dpa
When the federal government’s Corona warning app was introduced in the summer of 2020, critics primarily asked why it was coming so late and why SAP and Deutsche Telekom were allowed to collect millions for development and operation. But the federal government at the time never questioned that, on the contrary: the Federal Ministry of Health under Jens Spahn (CDU) extended the expiring contract with Deutsche Telekom and SAP two days before the federal elections until December 31, 2022, for a further 25.2 million Euro.
A good 40 million downloads and warnings from almost 1.3 million infected people to other users also speak for themselves.
The app does what it's supposed to do: it warns – and increasingly frequently.
In the current Omikron wave, many users are constantly being shown the red tile with the warning "Increased risk" because tens of thousands are newly infected with the virus every day and also enter the positive test result in the app.
But that's exactly why some experts doubt that the warnings and, above all, the corresponding official recommendations for action are still useful.
Health authorities and PCR test centers are overloaded
On the app's Twitter channel, users were recently asked to briefly switch off risk assessment in the test center.
This prevents many unnecessary warnings on the day, it said.
If you follow the recommendations of the Robert Koch Institute and the federal government, users with a red warning message would have to “go into voluntary quarantine” if possible and report to their family doctor or the local health department.
"They decide how to proceed based on possible symptoms of the disease." If there is a warning about an increased risk, there is a right to a free test (PCR test or antigen test).
This also applies to fully vaccinated people.
But the new Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) suspects how difficult it will be to implement this official recommendation in these days and weeks because the health authorities and PCR test centers are overloaded.
After all, the doctor is satisfied with simpler measures: "If a test is ordered here, an antigen test, or at least you do it yourself, then you can significantly slow down the pandemic," he said on Tuesday.
»Especially when there are a lot of warnings that then lead to tests, then that is a very important building block for slowing down the galloping pandemic.«
The minister therefore does not question the app either: "The Corona warning app is now doing its job," he said.
This also applies if she often strikes because of Omicron.
A spokesman for the Corona-Warn-App said: “The app works and works – especially in this phase of the pandemic.
We can also see that from the download numbers, which are constantly increasing.« The app makes an important contribution to breaking chains of infection without burdening health authorities.
Words of praise also come from Nicolai Savaskan, the medical officer in the Berlin district of Neukölln, where the seven-day incidence is currently the highest nationwide at over 1500.
"Compared to the beginning of the pandemic, people are dealing with the warnings much more competently," he says.
Despite the high user rate, there is no rush because of the app warnings.
When it comes to arranging a test, the circumstances of the risky contact are decisive.
But they are by no means always clear.
The infectiologist Jana Schroeder (Foundation Mathias-Spital, Rheine) thinks it is above all the “guessing” after a warning that makes the app complicated: When exactly could a risky contact have taken place?
Did you wear a mask during this time?
Could the warning possibly also come from the neighbor behind the room wall?
If the warnings are technically correct but prone to errors in terms of content - for example because the mask worn safely is not taken into account - then they are less useful, says Schroeder.
In principle, certain concepts against corona only work if the incidence is low.
This also applies, for example, to pool testing in schools.
The perceived risk may change
After a warning that popped up recently, Schroeder has concluded that she always wears a tight-fitting FFP2 mask in public, as she reports.
Future warnings are still of interest to her, "but otherwise it has no effect" because she sees herself well protected with the mask.
This decision also shows that guesswork in particular could lead to people rethinking their own protective behavior.
The perceived risk may also change.
The app spokesman said that evaluations from 2021 suggested that an encounter with a person who was proven to be infected led to a change in behavior.
The Frankfurt epidemiologist Timo Ulrichs still finds the app useful at the moment.
However, he said in an interview with the Hessischer Rundfunk: "If we go more and more into the peak phase of the omicron wave, this app will reach its limits." The spread will then be so dense that there will be few opportunities to interrupt transmission paths.
The Corona warning app now benefits from the fact that it has found a permanent place on countless smartphones, not just because of its core function – identifying high-risk encounters.
In the past year and a half it has developed into a digital Swiss Army Knife.
The function of saving vaccination certificates, proof of recovery or test results in the app and being able to show them quickly if necessary is particularly popular.
The latest version of the app can now also help to display valid vaccination or recovery certificates as well as a digital test certificate in one go.
This should make it easier to provide 2G-plus proof.
However, the new function still has difficulties with the booster vaccination.
The SAP programmers are working on eliminating this problem.
pbe/dpa
