Contact tracing

[midgebabe]

So one option could be

Squash the current epidemic to very low levels and then release from lockdown and use the test and contact trace to prevent a resurgence

Contact tracing however is a problem

Would you be prepared to have a contact tracing app on your phone ( data held for at least a month ) to facilitate this?

I am sure this was asked about 3 weeks ago, but I certainly have changed my mind

Interesting thread. I would be, but my location services (and sometimes data) are usually off. Would it work?

I don't know how it would work

it may be that you have to enable location services

It may be that it could work through Bluetooth ( which would also therefore need to be turned on) and bypass the general location services snooping but perhaps that is not possible

Not everyone has a phone, not everyone takes their phone with them everywhere they go. I worry the information would be open to misuse. But it could be an idea with merit if the powers that be really thought it through....

Would you have to have Internet/mobile data switched on all the time? Because that would gobble up allowances and battery life. Plus some remoter areas of the country are communications blackspots. (Central London too iirc; around Southwark, the Neo, Westminster/The Eye. Hmmmm)

I'm all for it. It's a big part of how China and South Korea have got things under control. Not concerned about privacy - the government could already track your location (if so inclined) by your mobile connecting to base stations. And I'd hope that the shambles around the lack of testing in this country has highlighted to people how useful a decent set of data can be.

I can go for a walk within 200m of my house and lose mobile signal. I only live a mile from quite a big town, but we get blackspots.

My best friend has patchy mobile signal in her village.

The black spots are interesting ... I guess that's where a Bluetooth version that "exchanges data" with other phones and then uploads once a day could work? If Bluetooth range is enough? Guess so? Would also save battery I suspect ?

People with no smart phone would need a solution, but helpfully only small numbers

I’m all for it. I’d rather be safe than be too concerned about privacy right now.

There’s CCTV everywhere. I’m pretty sure social media apps monitor your location (I know you can turn this off).

I’ve never been that bothered though. If I go missing I want to be easy to find!!

No. It will open the door to lots of abuse.

Plus if the government couldn’t be arsed to quarantine people coming in from hotspots, why should we pay for their incompetence with our privacy?

OP, interested that you changed your mind?

PowerslidePanda “ Not concerned about privacy - the government could already track your location (if so inclined) by your mobile connecting to base stations”

Does this apply to dumb phones as well please?

I agree about the quarantine from hotspots what a missed opportunity.

I think they will have to introduce quarantine. Not sure what the hold up is there, and why don't the journalists ask that for a change I just don't know!

Germany has just started talking about doing quarantine going forward so there is a chance to change minds

What changed my mind? missing my family so bad, realising how lucky I am compared to others who may have lost their jobs and have no outside space and yet I still feel stir crazy , thinking logically about what the best case scenarios could be.

Given that police are already overreaching their legal powers, nope.

Sorry OP

I didn’t see your post before

You’ve changed your mind from what to what, and why? Do you mean you prefer contact tracing to lockdown?

It doesn’t have to be either/or does it?

Germany quarantine, you mean for incomers?

I think the current measures are OTT and unrealistic as well as hugely unfair. The big supermarkets will do brilliantly and the airlines will cope.

To be honest I don't care what they do, as long as they have a plan that they are prepared to show the evidence base for and stick with the same plan whether it's popular with the media or not. I don't care about lack of privacy or how long the lockdown eventually ends up being, but I want a scientific rationale with evidence for any further decision they make.

I think if we want to simultaneously avoid NHS overload we either have to lockdown or we have to find some other way of controlling the infection rate

No lockdown and no other control leads to NHS disaster as we have no where near enough people with immunity

Contact tracing is the only way I can think of of minimising future infection rates ( alongside quarentine)
I have yet to see anyone else come up with another workable strategy other than repeated lockdowns which i think would be dreadful ..imagine lockdown for 2 months at Christmas

I guess I am thinking people would have the choice, stay in lockdown or agreeing to participate in contact tracing

OP

Couldn’t people who have it be questioned about where they’d been etc

Could large gatherings stay banned - say over 20 people - and apart from that, go about our normal business?

If contact tracing means track me by my phone but give me freedom to move and work, yes, I’d take that over lockdown.

But the choice itself moves me closer to the idea that this whole thing has been hyped up to give the state more control over us.

Even if it’s not hyped up

Everyone in my age group was expecting a pandemic surely? And we knew lots of us would die and would rather just live normal lives before it happens.

The biggest risk at the moment is the supermarket, the hardest place for ordinary people to avoid.

When mum is gone, I’m ditching my mobile. I’ve always been very happy with tech but this has put me right off.

I would be very happy to have a contact tracing app. Without something like this cases will go up again when lockdown is relaxed.

I guess it would be good to do some simulations to try and understand what if any voluntary social restrictions could control spread sufficiently, but I wonder if that could work sufficiently , because it wouldn't take much to get it escalating out of control again and that would mean a greater risk of more lockdowns.

You say eg 20 people ...would that mean 20 people in a train carriage, 20 people at a tube station?

OP

No I meant social gatherings.

Public transport is essential to get people back to work.

Also, some Tube lines effectively don’t have carriages now.

I think London is suffering the most in this lockdown. We don’t have gardens, we get raged at if we dare to sit on a bench in the park after a run.

A lot of what we’re going through is because politicians don’t want their reputations ruined.

The original figure of predicted deaths with no measures, was 500,000 across the UK I believe.

Now I think everyone’s swallowed the line so no one will admit it, but as a percentage of the population, that’s not what I thought a pandemic would be like.

Am I prepared to be collateral damage for normal life to continue? Yes.

They should start publishing daily deaths with causes attached like illness, car accident. Maybe everyone will stop getting their boxers in a bunch.

I feel especially sorry for elderly folk like my mum. Could be the last months of her life and she’s got to spend it doing this, to satisfy what can only be a brand new scientific theory. She’s been alone enough since dad died.

“ but I want a scientific rationale with evidence for any further decision they make.”

Which scientists would you listen to? All this “be led by the science” - the science isn’t established. I’m not blaming scientists, I just think we all need to be more realistic.

I won’t. I’d rather stay at home. The app could give you false hope and false alarm equally, also there could be places where mobile won’t work.

Yes wouldn't mind app as me going to tesco prob not too exciting for anyone to be worried but not sure if would work as people could just go out without phone etc? Other countries who do this have probably more compliant a population some of ours can't even follow stay at home very well

I would be fine to have a contact tracing app