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AIBU?

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Original poster

To avoid T or T by turning my phone off when out

322 replies

pontypridd · 27/05/2020 19:34

Pissed off with hypocrisy of government.

I’m playing by the rules and still properly social distancing so there’s no way I’m self isolating for 2 weeks if they call me.

Can turning phones off when out avoid being radarred?

OP posts:
Standupthisisnotateaparty · 28/05/2020 12:04

I've already been asked by my sister to not give her details if I ever test positive. She's self employed and says she can't lose the work
This just isn't going to work.

I agree. It will likely be abused the other way too.

BirdieFriendReturns · 28/05/2020 12:05

It won’t work and the website has already crashed. Oh well.

StatisticallyChallenged · 28/05/2020 12:06

I think dancinfeet is only voicing the concerns many people will have. The countries who have successfully used t&t were, afaik, starting with a lower number 9f cases so there was less chance of being ordered to isolate. I believe most of those countries are also testing contacts, not relying on them waiting 14 days for a test.

Given they're even saying you still have to isolate if you think or know you have previously had c19 people are not going to be able to afford to do this repeatedly.

Puzzledandpissedoff · 28/05/2020 12:28

the website has already crashed

Oh dear, oh dear ... Grin

Stannisbaratheonsboxofmatches · 28/05/2020 12:31

This is the shit we should have been doing at the beginning, surely?

dancinfeet · 28/05/2020 12:37

StatisticallyChallenged and Namechangeapril20 yes, completely agree. I am 100% happy to do everything needed, as long as we have the assurance of some sort of financial cushion should we need to fall back on it, if we cannot work due to quarantine or Covid. I'm probably one of the few who has done everything by the book regarding lockdown so far, and I do tend to be a stickler for rules generally.
I roughly paid myself basic minimum wage for the last few years whilst growing my business, we do live pretty hand to mouth and I often worked 60 + hours a week; and I know that my business is going to take a hard financial knock anyway, as it did in the recession of 2009 (where we ended up losing our home) so it's already going to be a long hard financial road for me over the next few years, regardless.

I was just voicing my worries that if it ultimately came to a choice of keeping a roof over my head and buying food for my family, or staying home protecting the vulnerable, then I would have to put my own family first. I 100% agree that we should not have to face that choice, and for those who may have to quarantine that the government need to provide financial assistance. Not everyone has savings that they can live off in an emergency, and for many like myself this isn't from overspending - it's from juggling and struggling, paying off debt from the last recession and only just making ends meet on a month to month basis. This is not a case of 'we fancy a day out at the beach, let's leave the phone at home to avoid tracking'; it's a case of me not having unnecessary contact with family and friends, adhering to social distancing, staying home as much as I can do, but not being able to financially feasibly quarantine myself unless I (or someone else in my household) is showing symptoms or tests positive for Covid. If anyone in my house was ill, we absolutely would stay home and quarantine.

PhilCornwall1 · 28/05/2020 13:09

The app, when it arrives, will work in exactly the same as the current contact tracing. Which is that ... if I had the app, was TESTED POSITIVE for Covid (not just got symptoms) and had been in the hairdressers with one of you on here, the hairdresser would get a call or a text (when it gets more sophisticated), you would get a call or text as would every other customer. My name wouldn't be mentioned. It would just say 'when you were in Cut Your Fringe on Wednesday someone else was there at the same time who has now tested positive for Covid, you should now isolate for 14 days'.

Does it? Does the app take your actual location?

PhilCornwall1 · 28/05/2020 13:12

Does it? Does the app take your actual location?

Sorry hit post to quickly. That should say will it? Because at present it doesn't take your actual location and they were at pains to point out that this type of information won't be taken.

ChimpsInClothes · 28/05/2020 13:15

My friend works in a power station. They've already got staff off for 12 weeks because they/ their family members are shielded.
If my friend and his colleagues are told to self isolate for 14 days, then go back to work for a day or two, then T and T tells them self isolate for another 14 days...at some point they will run out of staff.

The people who are in favour of this, if power stations cannot run - and as already mentioned supermarkets have to close, what are you going to do for food and electricity? I'm not being sarcastic by the way. Genuinely interested.

fiftiesmum · 28/05/2020 13:19

I have heard that there has been a complete mess of the recruitment of track and trace staff and like the 100000 daily tests the head count does not represent the numbers that are are trained and on the job.

GoldenOmber · 28/05/2020 13:22

ChimpsInClothes the idea behind this is that most people won’t be quarantining for 14 days. Most people won’t have been in close contact with a confirmed case so won’t need to. Most people won’t ever hear from a contact tracer.

Obviously if cases start shooting up again then it won’t work, but as it’s planned at the moment then there’s no need to worry about power stations and supermarkets shutting down all over the place. After all LOTS of other countries have used contact tracing to get the virus under control and that hasn’t happened.

Teateaandmoretea · 28/05/2020 13:31

I've already been asked by my sister to not give her details if I ever test positive. She's self employed and says she can't lose the work.

So she needs to avoid seeing people.

I very much don’t want to have to self isolate. I will as a result be keeping my contacts to a minimum that allows me to function and my children to have a life. I’m guessing this is one of the ways it will work to reduce transmission,

Teateaandmoretea · 28/05/2020 13:35

@chrimps I imagine in such an emergency they will test them regularly instead.

ifIwerenotanandroid · 28/05/2020 13:38

I've seen mentioned on TV today, that you still have to isolate & stay in isolation if T&T says so, even if:

(a) You've already had Covid-19 (so much for herd immunity, then?)

(b) You isolate for a bit, do a test & it comes back negative

Can anyone explain why?

Also, who are the companies who are doing/training T&T and the app?

StatisticallyChallenged · 28/05/2020 13:54

I saw the same - basically because they don't know how long immunity lasts and because even if you test you might still in theory be incubating the virus.

I think personally that both are disproportionate and people won't stick to self isolation in either circumstance.

ifIwerenotanandroid · 28/05/2020 13:57

'as if we should be in awe of a paranoid spotty faced undergrad'

That was me Grin, & I mentioned my degree to try to ward off people saying I was paranoid! I'm also not spotty faced (thank you, medicated soap) or an undergrad (I took my degree at a top university in the 1970s, so be as impressed as you like).

In fact my degree was in precisely this area & one of my professors went to great lengths to teach us to think about the way the world actually is & the reasons why things happen as they do & the possible ramifications of policies. It seems to me we need more people with this sort of training in government these days.

kazillionaire · 28/05/2020 13:57

You would just be told that you were in contact with a person who has tested positive, no names, no locations

BessMarvin · 28/05/2020 14:08

Those saying that because they won't tell you who has potentially infected you, you can't know if it's actually possible or not, the opposite isn't desirable either. I.e. You test positive, people are phoned to say that you might have infected them then they or someone they know dies of it. You can see some people taking revenge.

TheWordWomanIsTaken · 28/05/2020 14:21

Also, who are the companies who are doing/training T&T and the app?
Serco doing the T&T. Say no more.
Don't know about the app - probably some family member of Cummings or his cabinet.

PhilCornwall1 · 28/05/2020 14:39

Don't know about the app - probably some family member of Cummings or his cabinet.

The original Android and Apple apps were allegedly done by the NHSx, or that's who has published the code.

Paperthin · 28/05/2020 14:47

I wish everyone would just calm down about this, no one will get their location published to others, you just get a contact to say you have been in contact with a person who has tested positive then you have to isolate for 14 days. That’s to protect the community and the nhs, the ones we have been clapping for the last 10 weeks. I get we are all pissed off with lockdown, and with Boris and Cummings but this is what has been planned and talked about for weeks now. It’s what will get us back to normal, stopping people going about spreading the virus to others. If you don’t stay at home, you have the potential to spread the virus because you have been in contact with a person who has TESTED positive it’s not random.

ifIwerenotanandroid · 28/05/2020 15:01

I'm in favour of things being done efficiently & properly, for the good of us all.

I just look at this government's track record & Boris Johnson's performance yesterday & doubt they will be done properly in all cases, or that there are sufficient safeguards in place for when things go wrong.

Has there been an answer yet as to what happens when T&T ring someone & that person knows they haven't been near someone for 15 minutes or whatever? What safeguards are in place?

Buttle, Tuttle. Just sayin'.

Teateaandmoretea · 28/05/2020 15:14

@Paperthin couldn’t agree more. I have read constantly ‘we need track and trace for schools to go back’ but now it’s coming people are up in arms. What exactly do they want?

Yes it’s a pita, and it will mean you will need to think carefully about your behaviour and may have to isolate but it’s surely better than permanent isolation that you have no control over.

Personally I think Cummings is a twat but he is so low on my list of priorities he doesn’t register.

TheWordWomanIsTaken · 28/05/2020 15:30

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/28/nhs-will-keep-personal-data-of-people-with-coronavirus-for-20-years--uk-test-and-trace-programme

This absolutely determines me not to download. I wouldn't trust this government if it said it was raining.
I will maintain my own isolation other than the days I have to go to work. Two close family members are shielded (both my sisters - not in my household) and fully accept I may not see them again until the new year.
This government has no right to expect any more from me.

Bananabixfloof · 28/05/2020 15:35

What exactlydothey want

Well if you had bothered at all to read the thread you would know.

Will I be paid more than sick pay? If not I cant do it
How will they stop people saying they were with you when they weren't?
Will they guarantee my job if I have to isolate for two weeks, go back to work and isolate again and possibly again?
Who will hold the data and for how long?

And plenty of other reasons that I cba rooting through for just now.