Will you download the app?

[Old Greg]

Or on the other hand, the team working on the system were spun up so quickly at the start of the pandemic now that a stable alpha has been created it's handing over to a new dedicated team as the people brought in as a tactical fix still have all their existing priorities from before the pandemic.

But then again I have self admitted drinking the kool aid rather than attacking the work done, in normal times the procurement process for a new system like this would take months, the work was done in a matter of weeks or days when the pandemic response finally swung into action

The problem is not how long it has taken to get the app operational in the UK. It's how long it's taken to get the operational service of contact tracers phoning patients with a positive virology result to start the contact tracing process.

[SimonMac]

It's your project, isn't it?

Even if it was do you think I'd admit it

I'm at NHSX not NHS Digital, working on one of the few non-COVID19 projects still getting some traction.

I do however see the effort that the various teams are putting out, I'm on the calls with the SLT who are imploring people to "only" work 6 days a week and have some time off as they are burning out.

You may deridere the politicians response to the pandemic, but most of the work is being handled by civil servants and other public sector workers who understand the impact of austerity that has caused these problems with their paychecks frozen for year upon year. Who have begged various governments, both Labour and Conservative that underfunding will have serious, fatal consequences.

Remember some of the same NHS workers you were clapping for on Thursdays are the same now the ones being criticised. The chief nurse still does one day a week in A&E as well as her management responsibilities, GP's often advise on clinical safety of systems along side their own practice work. User Researchers sit side by side in ambulances with paramedics to find out how they use services to make them as efficient and as effective as possible.

[Old Greg]

We've (the UK Gvt) hired serco to outsource it to Wipro.

We rejected the WORKING models from Google, Apple (South Korea) on privacy grounds and outsourced to an outsourcer. Great.

I should add tho, that this is only NHS England.

Wales and Scotland will go pen and paper if needs be and have something workable / working now.

Ireland went CRM and had something working (contact tracers phoning patients with positive virology results) in mid-March.

The Irish contact tracing app has similar delays to the UK's as it happens.

[AtW]

“Boris Johnson’s patience wears thin over tracing app

Boris Johnson and his senior Downing Street advisers are growing increasingly impatient at delays to the launch of the NHS’s coronavirus tracing app, pressing health officials for a rethink even as a new trial is set for next week.

According to two people with knowledge of the situation, pressure from Number 10 has been stepped up in the past few days with one telling the Financial Times that the prime minister wants serious consideration to be given to a different version of the app developed by Google and Apple.“

Subscribe to read | Financial Times

[AtW]

Matt Hancock downplays role of contact tracing app



Privacy concerns solved

[DoctorStrangelove]

Pissups & breweries, pissups & breweries.

Damn we're lucky it's not 1940.

[AtW]

Pissups & breweries, pissups & breweries. Damn we're lucky it's not 1940.

It's 1918

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

In a totally unsurprising turn of events, it seems they are very quickly discovering that radio waves don't emit from devices in nice neat concentric circles and that perhaps relying on RSSI isn't a reliable indicator of proximity/distance after all:

Coronavirus: Ministers consider NHS contact-tracing app rethink - BBC News

Conveniently brushing over the fact that the so-called "workaround" for the limitations of Bluetooth APIs on iOS and Android (particularly iOS) doesn't actually work reliably.

Of course, despite some of the advantages of using the Apple/Google Exposure Notification API (not needing to worry about limitations of the Bluetooth APIs which solves the background issue, privacy benefits) the same issue with using Bluetooth for proximity will remain.

[AtW]

Most recent version of BT is apparently a lot better about accurate location of stuff, but would take a few years for people to have it in new phones.

This pandemic really happened at a very inconvenient time...

[Old Greg]

Most recent version of BT is apparently a lot better about accurate location of stuff, but would take a few years for people to have it in new phones.

This pandemic really happened at a very inconvenient time...

It seems pretty convenient for the forces behind 5G.