[maxerickson]

It's more in control in South Korea than it is in Europe or the US. The daily infections (per capita) are lower than the US or UK, even though they have not deployed nearly as much vaccine. Things may end sooner in the US, but probably not better overall (South Korea is likely to speed up vaccinations once more vaccines are globally available).

I'm also under the impression that their interventions have been less drastic than the US (but I haven't been following closely).

Are we really stuck thinking that a thing has to be a complete solution to be worth doing? It seems clear enough to me that identifying clusters and helping infected people isolate both have a big positive impact (both in disease control and in keeping things more open). Apps can be a piece of that puzzle.