To think test and trace will never work?

[PurplePIG1]

It seems like a massive waste of money. No one I know has ever downloaded the app, Ive heard of people writing wrong details if asked because they don't want to isolate. Complete disinterest.

I feel like the government will never succeed in this exercise, it seems pointless unless everyone is willing to use it. Maybe I'm unusual, I just dont know anyone doing it and I can't imagine they will change their minds over six months into this.

I don't know anyone who isn't using the app. Why on earth wouldn't you? Do they want to be in this mess longer? Not give a fuck about the doctors abs nurses?

I know plenty of people using it properly but it’s like the old saying one bad apple spoils the bunch.

@Rockpapershoot maybe I'm unusual then, just anything its been in discussion with friends, relatives etc everyone has said they aren't using it

I will add that i do use it!

Most people I know are using the app too. Dh has it on his personal phone but not on his work phone, they have their own systems in place (as advised by PHE).

Not sure how it would ever work though, when you have a considerable proportion of the population who don't have (or don't carry with them) phones / phones that can download apps, or don't have data on or bluetooth on when they walk about. That is a sizeable number

Then people working in hospitals, schools, Nurseries, Universities etc being told to turn it off when they are at work

Then all the people who aren't allowed to have their phone on them whilst they are at work

It makes it a pretty unreliable exercise.

I have the app, but often forget to turn mine on when I go out and about. I turn it off when I'm at home; I live in a flat and am not convinced that it can distinguish between walls/ceilings , and have been told not to have it on at work because we wear PPE at all times.

I haven't been within 2m of anyone outside of work, apart from my boyfriend, since March. So not much point in me even having it tbh. Think I just downloaded it because my MIL was horrified when I didn't have it, she's still horrified I turn it off at home!

It works when it's implemented well and people use it properly

So it has no chance in uk

Though if people are socially distancing properly, then no need for the app.

I have sympathy for people who would suffer extreme hardship if they were asked to self isolate for 2 weeks.
If people had been provided with good financial support to enable self isolation, and if we had a test track and trace system that really worked, would we be where we are now?

I haven’t downloaded it and I don’t know any one who has.

@Almostlegible

I have sympathy for people who would suffer extreme hardship if they were asked to self isolate for 2 weeks. If people had been provided with good financial support to enable self isolation, and if we had a test track and trace system that really worked, would we be where we are now?

It's a good time to introduce universal basic income. That way everybody - including the poor sods who got ill or lost their jobs before the pandemic (also through no fault of their own) gets help.

As for the test, track, and trace system. Perhaps we could sack Dido and bring in somebody from Germany or South Korea to oversee it. Somebody with experience of a successful system.

It’s not working because people don’t trust this government. They don’t trust that the app works because its development and implementation was handed to the wife of a government minister with no experience in track and trace and who royally ballsed up her last job when she was in charge of data, and they don’t trust that the government won’t do something underhand with their information.

And by government I mean Dominic Cummings who, by his actions, completely undermined any residual trust we had, along with the subsequent orchestrated obsequious support from ministers who should have known better. As a result the TaT has no face validity or credibility and has given a free pass to people who think they should be allowed to do what they want, regardless of the consequences.

I haven’t downloaded the app, but then again, I haven’t gone anywhere since March.

@Almostlegible I don't know anyone not using it because they are worried financially, they seem not to want it because they aren't interested/can't be bothered.

The app is not T&T, it's just an extra tool that could help T&T if it had been well thought through and well designed. Lots of countries have developed apps and most of them are better than ours. Nevertheless, uptake has been low everywhere except China and S Korea.

Our T&T has cost us £12BN and it's shit. It's still absolutely necessary to get it right or we'll be playing the lockdown hokey cokey for years, even after we start rolling out vaccines.

The government has failed, T&T needs handing over to local authorities asap.

They should've used the Zoe app or a version of it. Very simple and easy to use.

I haven’t downloaded it and I don’t know any one who has.

And right there you have shown why the virus is almost eradicated in Australia yet is still at huge levels in the UK.

Not sure how it would ever work though, when you have a considerable proportion of the population who don't have (or don't carry with them) phones / phones that can download apps, or don't have data on or bluetooth on when they walk about. That is a sizeable number

This
Not everyone has a smart phone. Let alone a phone at all.
Even if they do, does everyone know how to enable bluetooth?!

YANBU.

Fundamentally I think it's too slow. By the time "test and trace" find out a person has tested positive, they've been infectious for days.

@MarieFromStTropez

I haven’t downloaded it and I don’t know any one who has.

And right there you have shown why the virus is almost eradicated in Australia yet is still at huge levels in the UK.

Australia's success is not down to the app. About 25% of the population has downloaded it but the government has refused to release data on how many people are actually using it. It hasn't added much to traditional contact tracing.

www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/sep/20/covidsafe-app-government-refuses-to-release-numbers-citing-public-safety

@SheepandCow

They should've used the Zoe app or a version of it. Very simple and easy to use.

The Zoe app's great but it's not a contact tracing app.

Well you only have to look at the thread on here where people said they had no compunction about giving false details for test, track and trace purposes.

T&T would work just fine if people bothered to interact with it honestly.

From people giving false information to those who believe it’s all a big conspiracy intended to control the population or it’s side effects of 5G; to those refuse to comply with the instruction to isolate due to contact (or even those who test positive but see themselves as too important to modify their behaviour) It was doomed from the start.

Sadly there are too many people who treat Covid as one big joke or nothing more serious than a cold.

In Aus, you can't even go into a cafe without scanning the code and putting in your details, so people ARE using it. Also people are much more compliant when it comes to wearing masks and not congregating.

Same in China. I have lots of Chinese friends and they report knowing no-one with Covid in their communities back home. Covid has all but gone from China.

Mumsnet is full of threads from people declaring they won't wear masks or scheming to find ways around the rules. If only they'd stuck to the rules in the first place, the UK wouldn't be in the situation it is in now.

In Aus, you can't even go into a cafe without scanning the code and putting in your details, so people ARE using it. Also people are much more compliant when it comes to wearing masks and not congregating

They are, but that's not how the numbers were brought down. Au is a country but states/territories closed borders to limit the spread. I see Wales would quite like to do this.

The severe lockdown in Vic brought numbers to low enough levels so the authorities could identify clusters and mystery infections at manageable levels. The 5K limit for travel, with work-travel permits would have many in the the UK going . but it is part of what made the lockdown work.

It's now that the lockdown has been eased the QR code is being used.

I agree with you about the general acceptance of masking and SD, at least from where I am, and it bears no resemblance to the, ahem, robust individualism so often evidenced on MN threads.