Test And Trace.....

[ToraToraTora]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52829357
Why are they using a manual system rather than the software?

[fiction-factory]

If you mean the App, it is still being trialled I think. The app was always intended to be something to complement the what the medical experts call the long standing 'shoe leather' approach

[dannyk13]

And not everyone will have the app.

[Zacs-Master]

It won’t work. The IoW trial failed.

[ToraToraTora]

did it? link?

[fiction-factory]

There's a fair chance of that Zacs- I have just heard there were issues and certainly no real positive feedback has been government

[fiction-factory]

Nothing official TTT- just a hunch I think from Zacs and it's something I've wondered based on the 'mood music'

[dannyk13]

TTT
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/isle-wight-contact-tracing-trial-undermined-people-uk-mainland/

[SlackAlice]

Some doubts on the App here
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52709568

[ToraToraTora]

that's interesting danny. Gromit swore blind it wasn't working the other day in a very detailed post so if it's not working how is it effecting the mainland.

[dannyk13]

TTT, I think it is the mainland affecting the IOW.

[Zacs-Master]

Some things don’t need a link, Tora. If it had worked, it would have been all over the news. It would also have been run out in the rest of the country. It’s failure is the answer to you questioning why the new manual test and trace is being used, rather than the app.

People will not self isolate, especially if they have no symptoms.

Johnson has said : "This is something that we are relying on people's public-spiritedness, on their willingness to co-operate and defeat the disease."
Yeah, good luck with that after the Cummings fiasco!

[ToraToraTora]

danny sorry I mean how is the app on the mainland having any effect if, as gromit said, it's just an Icon?

[ToraToraTora]

ZM: 09:03, yes I just thought there had been a public statement to the effect.
"Johnson has said : "This is something that we are relying on people's public-spiritedness, on their willingness to co-operate and defeat the disease."
Yeah, good luck with that after the Cummings fiasco! " - agreed, as I discovered yesterday we can't even get people to obey the arrows in a supermarket. The only way T&T could work is by app coupled with carrot and stick enforcement, along similar lines to China. Though TBF theirs is more stick and bigger stick.

[dannyk13]

TTT I don't know.

[Zacs-Master]

I think the Govt is in enough trouble without introducing China style measures.

[fiction-factory]

The article isn't clear but I think they were implying the take up rate was nowhere near as high as first thought because the initial figures included those who had downloaded the app on the mainland.
My main concern about the app is that there would be those happy to see it fail who would abuse it, and some would use it mischievously by to inconvenience others

[mushroom25]

// some would use it mischievously by to inconvenience others //

is there a right of appeal for those who may have been fingered maliciously?

[Ellipsis]

Test & Trace definitely brings the Cummings issue into focus:

--------------------------------------------------------------
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-52828885
In a later BBC interview, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock again stresses that he believes the "vast majority of people" will follow instructions to self-isolate if told to under the new test and trace system being launched in England today.

He was asked on BBC Radio 4's Today programme whether the row over the PM's chief adviser Dominic Cummings would make it harder to persuade the public to abide by these instructions.

He said: "I think that the vast majority of people will understand that it is in everybody's interest that those who are at higher risk follow these requests from the NHS, these instructions, and it's very, very important that they do."
--------------------------------------------------------------

I heard that interview. When talking about Test & Trace, Hancock used the word "instructions" (as above). When asked whether Cummings followed instructions, Hancock said "Dom followed the guidelines". Instructions, guidelines ... whatever eh?

The issue with Test & Trace is not one where you're worried about infecting a vulnerable loved one. It's that you'll feel perfectly well, receive a call from the Government "instructing" you to self-isolate as someone (who they won't name) who you've been near has developed Covid symptoms, and it's over to you to figure out whether to put your life on hold, not go into work, not go out, put your life on hold ... all while you feel fine. There is no way that the Cummings affair will not impact many people's decision-making process as they evaluate whether to follow those instructions - or were they guidelines?

[woofgang]

Dido Harding made clear yesterday that for the test and trace activity, the self isolate thing would be an instruction, not a request and that if people didn't follow the instruction than there could be stronger measures put in place....Boris agreed at the Commons liaison committee that regulation could not be ruled out. It wasn't him who raised the point but one of the Committee, sorry can't remember who.

[woofgang]

sorry...my point is that its not up to you to decide what to do.