This contact tracing app doesn’t make sense?

[Lemonpancakesultana]

If you have symptoms you tell the app so it then can contact people you are in close proximity with.

If you have symptoms you should be self isolating anyway so why would you be out and and about in contact with other people?

So what’s the point?

I guess because if you got symptoms today, you may have been out or at work for a few days before that. You can spread it, even if you don't have symptoms.

Yes you are contagious before you are symptomatic.

If you have symptoms you will likely have been infectious for the previous few days, so the people you were in contact with then will be informed and they can then isolate before they get infectious never mind show symptoms

It contacts people you have been near, two weeks ago.

I don’t understand how it’ll work in workplaces, my office is operating as normal (key workers) and social distancing just isn’t possible 100% of the time with shared toilets and other areas. If got symptoms and told the app, my whole office would have to self isolate?

You are contagious for 14 days before any symptoms.

So the app alerts the people you’ve seen in the last 14 days.

Does it tell then ho has the virus, so they can say oh yes, we shared space at the sinks in the ground floor ladies just before leaving work 8 days ago.

Or is it just well someone has it but fuck knows who - might have been the dusty grey man from procurement who I have never actually seen since the Christmas party in 2009.

@covidpanics well your employer should have thought of that before having you all in at the same time.

I suggest you find out who your local MP is now and the external body who does H&S for your organisation, so you can report them when someone comes down with it and your entire organisation isn't closed down...

covidpanics of course social distancing isn’t always possible, there’ll be a lot of places where this is an issue.

How do you feel about it?

I’ve had exactly the same thoughts about my workplace.
Im WFH but strong signals are that we’ll be getting back to the office as soon as possible as even though we are working well at home our managers seem to think that there’s too much scope for slacking. 🤯

You can tell it’s currently being tolerated through gritted teeth.

I’m not sure logistically how it’ll work in that it’ll only be relevant if you have your phone with you and on at all times I’m assuming, and how will it know if you’re in the same office space (for example) as someone or if you’ve got a wall between you and the person who has it. I assume a lot of people will be alerted all the time. And if you’re alerted do you thrn need to isolate?

I don't see how it can possibly work unless either levels of infection in the community are extremely low or people have very few contacts. How would it work for a nurse in a busy hospital, will everyone who went to that hospital have to self isolate? Is it based on the gps location of the nurse and her contacts?

It is not based on GPS but on Bluetooth which exchanges codes with phones that are close together. You know the codes of phones you were close too and if that code becomes associated with a possible infection you get alerted

It only works if the probability of you catching it is quite low, for everyone including medics, so that most people will never get the isolate message

Which is why it will be a few weeks before we need to do this

How will it work for staff who have to leave phones in lockers? Can’t track contacts then can it?

Well it also doesn't work if people don't download it

It works when you have the app and carry it with you and if lots of people do it most of the time it will greatly control R, minimising the number of infections

If people don't and we also don't want face recognition and tracing of debit card transactions and snooping of mobile phone signals, then it's probably more lockdowns

It doesn't need to be perfect to have a measurable beneficial impact

Only contagious 1-2 days b4 symptoms appear, not 14 days before.

Don’t you have to be tested and have the infection before it’ll tell everyone? Otherwise people will just say they have for jokes, to cause chaos or because they think they have but don’t...

I don't understand how it'll work. Do I tell it I have symptoms (if I do) then it checks the codes of phones I've been near in X number of days, then tell those phones?

It contacts people you have been near, two weeks ago.

So it tells me that I have been in contact with that person but what about the people I have then been in contact with since then?

So if I go round Sainsbury’s and then put into the app that I have a cough (likely hay fever), lots of customers will then have to self isolate?

Also, what about people whose doctor believes they have had it, but who couldn't get a test because they weren't hospitalised? I'm on this category. Why would I need the app?

What if every time I leave the house I encounter someone with symptoms? No employer is going to pay someone to stay at home for years because an app told them too.

And no, I’m not downloading it.

I assume it will only notify if the person has had co I’d confirmed. It only works in a situation where there is a low level of infection I. The general population.

So if I go round Sainsbury’s and then put into the app that I have a cough (likely hay fever), lots of customers will then have to self isolate?
Here, the idea is that you would only tell the app of confirmed cases, and the people who are warned then get tested to see if they need to isolate.

This is one reason why testing has been ramped up in the UK.

I don't understand what you are supposed to do with the alert tbh.

Go into work and say "I got a notification , could have been anyone from woman I sat behind on the bus who coughed in my face or could have been someone in an ally I never even saw who had their bluetooth on"

Cant see work places actually going for that tbh