NHS solution won't work, it would be waste of effort and public money. Saying there's no privacy and there's no company to trust is not helping anyone.
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UK Pursues Centralized Coronavirus Contact Tracing App, Rejects Apple-Google Solution
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NHS solution won't work, it would be waste of effort and public money. Saying there's no privacy and there's no company to trust is not helping anyone.
It is not just the elderly who are vaccinated every year, but also those with various health conditions, so it is quite a lot of people of all ages. But I do not see how this would help with the flu.
The only way public health authorities would know which strains are most active are when people get so ill they need to be hospitalized and tested. That testing would reveal which strains present the most threat, and which areas are most at risk. The only value the app could have is in telling those who have been near an infected person to get tested and or vaccinated, and maybe prioritizing areas with the highest prevalence.
But that system of tracking and testing would be more expensive and complex than simply just vaccinating everyone at risk, something that can be done during any routine G.P. visit or by any local pharmacist. And vaccinating people unnecessarily is safer than deciding not to vaccinate people based on their area or contacts.
Although you could tailor the vaccine given based on the reported strain, you could do that now. Either way you are waiting for the first affected people of the winter who need testing. But as a reactive measure it leaves people vulnerable until you have a large enough sample to say which vaccines to give. The app could not speed that process up. The mass vaccination programme being proactive ensures those most at risk have protection immediately.
It is W.H.O. which predicts which strains need to be protected against ahead of each season, and part of this is so that manufacturers can produce vaccines in large enough volumes. So this is another reason why you need to be proactive. If you waited until you knew which strains were most active, you introduce a further delay before being able to protect people as you wait for manufacturers to start production and can reach sufficient quantities.
The point of all of these apps is to avoid lockdowns. They do not protect people individually from the virus but seek to reduce the number of people spreading it. When someone who has the virus is tested as being infected it can warn everyone they have been in contact with to either isolate or be tested themselves, in accordance with local policies. The alternative being the current blanket measures to, as much as possible, prevent any sort of interaction.
Whilst this could be done with the flu, government would not consider the lower mortality risk as worth such a system, especially whilst mass vaccinations though imperfect (for the reasons you state about having to predict strains) have been reasonably effective. More importantly, the public are less likely to support the tracking measures for something that those without health conditions do not perceive as a threat. Especially when for the purpose of an app to provide any actual benefit would be to require people to isolate. Which they generally already do anyway when they have the flu.
There exist degrees of illness between “fine” and “almost dead”, but that isn’t really the point. The point is we don’t know for certain and thanks to the dishonesty/inconsistent messaging (depending how much benefit of the doubt you give them) exhibited by this government (and for which Johnson himself is famous for) we’ve no reason to take their word for it, especially when doctors have cast doubt on just how close to death he was. And if I recall correctly, the post you took issue with did not say “he was fine” or even “he was not close to death”, it merely said it was questionable. You must have very strong evidence if you say it was not questionable.
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Tru dat! I never had any intention and definitely not installing the Australian version just made available in the App Store. Only the naive, righteous and those excited by the drama will install this App.
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I hope you mean the British Government, if you do then I'm with you.
I'm British and ever since I've been politically aware I've been desperate for the NHS to be improved. The problem has been that successive Tory governments over the last ten years have attempted - and nearly succeeded - in destroying the NHS.
Yup, lets keep everyone that doesn't have a smart phone at home. That isn't going to cause any problems at all.
I doubt the app will be iOS only, I’m sure it will communicate with the Android version. The huge limiting factor won’t be OS, it’ll be whether or not they’ve installed the app.
I think they (the NHS and other government bodies) may also be hoping to build a more complete and detailed picture of the spread (and containment) of the virus for use in decision making, so asking purely what it can do for you may be missing the point somewhat.
Well he was in ICU, he was silent for over a week. My first point is, why was it questionable, the only facts are, he was in an ICU; only a minority of Covid cases end up in there. [and a lot don't leave there looking at the figures].
My second point is you state that the government dishonest / inconsistent about his condition, so for that to be the case, for them to be lying and saying he was "fine" he could not be fine. Or if they weren't lying, then he had to be fine, so it is double jepoardy; he cannot be fine at the same time they were lying. Folks just need to quit filling the void, i.e. absence of information or lack of facts is not automatically a conspiracy.
The third point is, it all BS, since once he was in hospital, no government representative ever mentioned his condition [they actively declined to comment], other than to say he was receiving the best care available; Johnson never said anything for 10 days so there was no dishonesty or inconsistency? The only consistency throughout the whole saga was the benial questions from the media, every day about whether the foreign secretary had the authority to make decisions.
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Like every country on the planet thus far; there isn't a Apple / Google system yet.
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Well then you have a lot of fellow citizens that are as you describe, given that 2M+ signed up in less than a day [they expected a million in 5 days]. Perhaps rather than being naive, or self rightous, they are acting in the public interest and for theirs and others well being?
There are rumours out now that the UK has been giving a £250,000,000 contract to build this application to a company related to the best friend of Dominic Cummings (UK's Rasputin, if you thought something like that would be possible in the 21st century).
£250,000,000 is a much better explanation than any wish to collect user's data why the UK would be going on this ridiculous path. I'd be curious to know what the German solution will cost. Probably not a percent of this.
And this in a country that "improved" the statistics about how many pieces of health equipment they delivered to the NHS by counting not pairs of latex gloves, but single gloves.
£250,000,000 is a much better explanation than any wish to collect user's data why the UK would be going on this ridiculous path. I'd be curious to know what the German solution will cost. Probably not a percent of this.
And this in a country that "improved" the statistics about how many pieces of health equipment they delivered to the NHS by counting not pairs of latex gloves, but single gloves.
I don't particularly disagree with a lot of what you say, but this part just makes no sense to me. You still seem to be saying he's either fine or he's on the verge of death, that one of these statements has to be true with no space for a condition between. Leaving aside the fact we're talking about different points in time, I really don't get why you see it as a choice between binary extremes.
I have never suggested he was fine at all; I have no reason to question that he was very likely ill as subsequently reported and the available evidence supports; it is others who suggest that was not the case and he was fine all along. I am specifically answering two points, one it was "questionable" that he was near death; facts are we just dont know, but the weight of evidence suggests he was very ill, secondally you supported the "questionable" statement by suggesting lying and misinformation from the government? I contest, there is zero evidence of misinformation about BJ condition from anyone in government; the truth is that there were no statements [false or otherwise] about his well-being throughout his hospitalisation, other than the announcement he was put into an ICU.
Anyway, I think we have digressed enough from the topic, and I apologise for that; we'll have to agree to disagree on what went on.
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I have to confess, it never fails to surprise me what drivel people lap up and believe. Just add to the rumour, the 18,000 people the NHS is recruiting to manage the app after release are all Dominic Cummings family and friends; he has also set up a deal with Carphone Warehouse to source smartphones for those who don't have one yet; they have selected the SE, since they were worried about privacy and wanted something cheap.
What is ridiculous path is the UK taking? There are no current alternatives to what the UK has been doing since January and to be factual, Apple and Google have been providing support to NHSX.
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There’s been some unease about a conflict of interests (the polite term being used, as everyone’s a bit sensitive about the word “corruption”) between Palintir links to that cockroach Cummings and his “advice” on government contracts for some time now, but I hadn’t seen this latest suggestion - source? If true, and it wouldn’t surprise me sadly, there’ll be no place to hide surely.
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“NHS says Apple and Google would 'slow down' contact-tracing efforts”
NHS says Apple and Google would 'slow down' contact-tracing efforts
NHSX, the health service's research arm, said its own contact-tracing app could be ready in a fortnight
www.telegraph.co.uk
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Haha, you couldn’t make it up. Irony or just pure hypocrisy, I can’t tell?
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If it saves my life it will be worth it, if I don't catch the virus, the Government will know where I've been, it's no big deal to me.
I’m with you on this one. All the negative hot air is being pushed out by the usual minority bunch of self centred know all wasters that happily put battery life above human life. I’d also be interested to know how many of the nay sayers are on the wrong side of the Atlantic i.e. the side descending into anarchy and with the Bleach salesman as head of state.
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Anything starting with ‘there are rumours’ should be classed as rumour mongering and the perpetrator treated as a social pariah.
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Is the range of this app known yet? It could be a huge range if it isn’t able consider how far away another person is and just relies on Bluetooth communication. Thinking about how far I can walk from my phone with headphones on it is a very large distance and much further than 2m. When I do end up back at my office in London I’m going to have to turn Bluetooth off while I’m at my desk otherwise everyone that walks past the building on the street outside will trigger it.