Contact Tracing: Will You Self Isolate? (and related discussion)

[Badgers]

UK test and trace system failing in major outbreak zones, leaked analysis shows

Exclusive: Only half of contacts are being reached in northwest England

www.independent.co.uk

Leaked analysis obtained by The Independent shows that across northwest England, the national tracing service is reaching only 52 per cent of all close contacts, leading one senior source to say: “The contact tracing service is now part of the problem we are trying to solve, not the solution.”

 

[ska invita]

I'm surprised it's as much as 50%

 

[LDC]

Problems with it for sure, with people refusing to give their contacts, giving out false details, and people not answering their phones among them.

 

[CNT36]

There is an interesting alternative system or one that could run along side this being developed in the US. Cheap and quick spit tests that can be mass produced and used daily. Here is a New York Times article about it.
The tests themselves are not particularly sensitve however as they will be used on people who would not otherwise be tested it can be very useful. Although the sensitivity is low this is related to the amount of virus present in an individual. Once someone is infectious the likelihood of detection is much higher. The tests could be used daily in the morning perhaps. If someone passes the test they go to work/school/the pub if not they go back to bed. There are as with anything problems but some virologists seem excited by the prospect. Some discussion that a perfect likely very expensive test is being prioritised. Very interested to see how/if this develops.

 

[Badgers]

It is Serco

Several public health experts have signed an open letter calling for the publication of the contracts for private companies running the coronavirus contact tracing programme.

The letter claims that of the £10 billion of public money allocated for the test and trace system in England, there is currently over £9 billion of funding unaccounted for – some of which will be spent on contracts with companies including Serco, Sitel and Capita.

Public health experts demand publication of contact tracing contracts

Around £9bn is unaccounted for.

leftfootforward.org

 

[Badgers]

Government Minister on Radio 4 just now:

We all accept test and trace is a programme which needs to continue to improve and there is total humility in government about that

I thought it was 'world beating'

 

[littlebabyjesus]

There is an interesting alternative system or one that could run along side this being developed in the US. Cheap and quick spit tests that can be mass produced and used daily. Here is a New York Times article about it.
The tests themselves are not particularly sensitve however as they will be used on people who would not otherwise be tested it can be very useful. Although the sensitivity is low this is related to the amount of virus present in an individual. Once someone is infectious the likelihood of detection is much higher. The tests could be used daily in the morning perhaps. If someone passes the test they go to work/school/the pub if not they go back to bed. There are as with anything problems but some virologists seem excited by the prospect. Some discussion that a perfect likely very expensive test is being prioritised. Very interested to see how/if this develops.

That sounds very promising. Combined with the growing evidence of the importance of 'superspreaders' in transmission, if what is suspected is confirmed (that superspreaders are people with particularly high viral loads), even a relatively insensitive test should be able to pick most of these people out at the point where they become superspreading. We don't need perfect to avoid exponential growth.

 

[zahir]

Anthony Costello on the state of test and trace.

Six months into Covid, England's quarantine programme is still a mess | Anthony Costello

The government is asking people who may have coronavirus to isolate - but it has no idea of whether they’re doing so, says professor of global health Anthony Costello

www.theguardian.com

 

[8ball]

Anthony Costello on the state of test and trace.

Six months into Covid, England's quarantine programme is still a mess | Anthony Costello

The government is asking people who may have coronavirus to isolate - but it has no idea of whether they’re doing so, says professor of global health Anthony Costello

www.theguardian.com

What a fucking mess.

 

[Badgers]

Anthony Costello on the state of test and trace.

Six months into Covid, England's quarantine programme is still a mess | Anthony Costello

The government is asking people who may have coronavirus to isolate - but it has no idea of whether they’re doing so, says professor of global health Anthony Costello

www.theguardian.com

It is the public to blame. The government's clear messages should be adhered to.

 

[muscovyduck]

How's everyone finding test and trace? I've been in 4 pubs/cafes, the one I just wondered in and had to find someone to ask them to sign me in, second one nothing, third one was an online form I couldn't get to work, fourth was using the same system. Might be a very localised experience though

 

[clicker]

I've been in 2 pubs. Sat outside in both. First one couldn't get the app to work for ordering drinks or leaving your contact details. The second one wasn't collecting any details.
My local cafe also isnt collecting any info.
Can't see me sitting inside a pub anytime soon.

 

[LDC]

How's everyone finding test and trace? I've been in 4 pubs/cafes, the one I just wondered in and had to find someone to ask them to sign me in, second one nothing, third one was an online form I couldn't get to work, fourth was using the same system. Might be a very localised experience though

That's not T&T really, that's how it's being run in individual places, which, as far as I can tell, is left totally to the venue to decide.

I've only been in 2 places in the last few weeks, both of which were pub gardens. Neither asked for our details, although booked a table to both, so they had them anyway I guess. Both were pretty good with social distancing, tables far apart, cleanliness, staff seeming aware, etc. but only saw a sellotaped poster in the second that was easy to miss asking someone from each group give in their contact details to the bar staff. Nothing in the first at all, which was actually the better of the 2 set-up wise.

 

[Roadkill]

I've been in 2 pubs. Sat outside in both. First one couldn't get the app to work for ordering drinks or leaving your contact details. The second one wasn't collecting any details.
My local cafe also isnt collecting any info.
Can't see me sitting inside a pub anytime soon.

I was saying that right up til about 9.30 last night, when it got a little chilly outside, and me and the colleague I'd gone for a beer with moved indoors. I wouldn't have done that had I not had a few pints by then, but I'm not worried. There were only three infections in the city last week - among a population of 250,000+ - and my local is being very conscientious about social distancing and is a large, well ventilated space anyway.

I don't think much of their T&T data collection, though. They ask you to text details to a number but there's no mechanism for checking up on whether you've done it or not - and posting this has reminded me that I forgot. I'll go back and get the number today, for the sake of being a good boy. The other pub I've been to a couple of times gets everyone to fill out a little slip with name and phone number and won't serve you until you do, which looks like a much more robust system to me.

 

[platinumsage]

Apparently they're sacking a third of telephone contact tracers and adding home visits (run by local authorities) to those who don't respond to phone contact.

 

[quimcunx]

If we have been running both local and national tracing how is it decided which handles what?

 

[existentialist]

If we have been running both local and national tracing how is it decided which handles what?

Well, given that the national tracing doesn't seem to be handling very much, by all accounts, I imagine it will be quietly left to the local operations, probably with a sigh of relief.

I don't think I can recall such a consistently shit series of actions by a government in my lifetime.

 

[Teaboy]

Good news. They're trialing the app again.

Coronavirus: England's contact tracing app trial gets under way

It will serve self-isolation alerts based on logs of who the user was recently in close contact with.

www.bbc.co.uk

Presumably this is the one that actually works on android and iphone as opposed to the useless shit that they Cummings's mate millions for.

 

[Badgers]

Good news. They're trialing the app again.

Coronavirus: England's contact tracing app trial gets under way

It will serve self-isolation alerts based on logs of who the user was recently in close contact with.

www.bbc.co.uk

Presumably this is the one that actually works on android and iphone as opposed to the useless shit that they Cummings's mate millions for.

Am holding my breath

 

[Pickman's model]

Well, given that the national tracing doesn't seem to be handling very much, by all accounts, I imagine it will be quietly left to the local operations, probably with a sigh of relief.

I don't think I can recall such a consistently shit series of actions by a government in my lifetime.

world beating

 

[Pickman's model]

Am holding my breath

probably safest

 

[Teaboy]

Am holding my breath

It seems inevitable that it will have a massive and really obvious flaw. Something like it wipes battery life or is a major data security risk.

 

[Badgers]

It seems inevitable that it will have a massive and really obvious flaw. Something like it wipes battery life or is a major data security risk.

Or both and more

 

[ska invita]

Good news. They're trialing the app again.

Coronavirus: England's contact tracing app trial gets under way

It will serve self-isolation alerts based on logs of who the user was recently in close contact with.

www.bbc.co.uk

Presumably this is the one that actually works on android and iphone as opposed to the useless shit that they Cummings's mate millions for.

 

[Badgers]

Love Island stars and influencers paid to promote Test and Trace - BBC News

Taxpayer money was used to pay influencers to promote Test and Trace.

www.bbc.com

Money chucked at 'influencers' and to party donors Serco but nothing spent on actually delivering a competent system.

#worldbeating

 

[kalidarkone]

Someone at work showed my how to turn the Bluetooth tracker thingy on, but now I can't find it. It was a specific covid test and trace thing. I really don't understand.

The other thing is, is for many reasons I do not answer phone calls from numbers I dont recognise. Im sure this is the case for many people. Or im working and can't or I'm driving and can't. So surely it would be best if I could save the test and trace no in my phone and then I know who is calling me! Then I'd answer if I wasn't driving/ directly looking after a patient.

 

[Badgers]

 

[existentialist]

View attachment 230781

Jesus fucking Christ, is the ONLY answer to ANY fuckup for this Government just to PRIVATISE IT HARDER.

What cunts.

 

[William of Walworth]

Repeat post alert (I posted this on the 'Coronavirus UK' thread last night) but given the above, this seems highly relevant in this thread too :


For now, here's a pretty good attack on why and how the privatised Tory test 'systems' have fucked up big style (apologies if this article has been linked to elsewhere on Urban ) :

England's test and trace is a fiasco because the public sector has been utterly sidelined

The UK ranks among the great hubs of scientific research. It has 44 virology labs across the NHS, and more throughout academia. It also boasts great public health expertise. Yet England’s testing regime is in meltdown. Why?

It is not through penny-pinching. Ten billion pounds of your money and mine has been poured into test and trace. Rather, it’s because the vast majority of that expertise has been utterly sidelined.

The system that is labelled “NHS test and trace” has hardly anything to do with the NHS. Each fragment of this system is contracted out to big private companies that often turn to subcontractors. So Deloitte handles the huge Lighthouse Labs that can’t get through the tests, while Serco oversees the contact-tracing system that regularly misses government targets.
Still, failure pays: Serco’s initial fee for running tracing was £108m. Then there are the consultants buzzing around this cash cow. Accenture pocketed more than £850,000 for 10 weeks’ work on the contact-tracing app – the one that still hasn’t been launched. McKinsey scooped £560,000 for six weeks’ work creating the “vision, purpose and narrative” of a new public health authority.

 

[Badgers]

Test and Trace: 'I feel like I’ve achieved a big fat zero'

Alex Lee spent four months as a clinical contact caseworker with England’s NHS Test and Trace system.

Test and Trace: 'I feel like I’ve achieved a big fat zero'

Alex spent four months as a coronavirus tracer and spoke to only one person with the virus in that time.

www.bbc.co.uk