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Change to NHS Covid App “Too Little, Too Late”, Say Business Leaders

by Michael Curzon
3 August 2021 8:27 AM

Fewer people will be told to self-isolate in the coming weeks following an update to the NHS Covid app which means only those who have come into contact with an asymptomatic case in the past 48 hours (rather than the past five days) will be ‘pinged’. But this is only likely to prevent up to one fifth of ‘pings’, according to reports, highlighting that the ‘pingdemic‘ is far from over.

The response to the update from business leaders has been cold. The main impression seems to be that the change is “too little, too late”. A spokesman for the Adam Smith Institute (ASI) think tank says the app – even in its new form – is “designed for a world with no treatments and no vaccines” and so has no place in Britain. MailOnline has more.

U.K. Hospitality Chief Executive Kate Nicholls said more had to be done, with the fact that fully vaccinated staff still having to self-isolate being a “significant barrier to venues operating viably and moving towards recovery”.

And the ASI said the Government should now consider handing impacted firms a rebate for the “lost business the NHS app has taken out of our productive and otherwise healthy economy”.

Ms Nicholls said: “This intervention from Government is absolutely necessary to prevent a complete loss of summer trading for the hospitality sector following prolonged periods of severely disrupted trading.

“This will help to alleviate some of the pressure currently being experienced by hard-hit businesses, but is not a silver bullet.” …

She added that the industry body’s research found more than 250,000 hospitality workers are being affected by ‘pings’ at any given point by the app.

And a spokesman for the ASI said: “This is exceptionally welcome for firms struggling with employees off – not because they’ve got Covid but because of an app designed for a world with no treatments and no vaccines.

“It comes too little and too late though for so many companies that have lost revenue and taken on debt from reduced service provision and custom due to the app.” …

Although the change to the app is a major move to address the pingdemic, it will apply only in cases where Covid-carriers do not have symptoms – about one third of total infections.

This means hundreds of thousands are still likely to be pinged each week and the self-isolation carnage will continue to wreak havoc until the rules are fully relaxed later this month [but only for those who are fully vaccinated].

Currently when people are pinged by the app they are advised – but not legally obliged – to self-isolate for 10 days.

Trade union Unite said the change in guidance does not go far enough, and repeated its call for the automotive and steel sectors to be exempt from self-isolation rules. …

The Government said fewer people will now be pinged overall but the total number of “high-risk contacts being advised to self-isolate” will stay the same.

Worth reading in full.

Stop Press: “It’s time to embrace Britain’s jab success by scrapping Covid ‘ping’ app NOW,” says the Sun in its main leader today.

Tags: NHS AppPingdemicSelf-IsolationTesting

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27 Comments
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Van Allen
Van Allen
3 years ago

Agree with the overall sentiment, however, not the arbitrary split that “fully vaccinated” should be dealt with differently. The latest research is showing waning immunity (not to be confused with antibodies) in the vaccinated. Conversely those with natural immunity appear to have robust and lasting protection despite the billions of pounds being spent by the vaccine manufacturers and governments to try to make it appear that vaccine immunity is superior to the “real deal”. Proof of immunity (t cell) or a negative test would be the rational key to skipping isolation if it is still deemed to be a high consequence infectious disease. It isn’t.

17
-1
RickH
RickH
3 years ago
Reply to  Van Allen

Bollocks. The old, old procedure of staying away from other people if you have symptoms is tried and tested.

You may get the odd transmission from individuals whose symptoms are just about to show, but so what? That’s life, and fannying around with the disproportionate terror meme has done nothing.

26
0
Lockdown Sceptic
Lockdown Sceptic
3 years ago
Reply to  RickH

Of course the only good will com is when all Covid App, Covid Restrictions, Covid Jabs and the entire political and media class who are forcing this nonsense on us are gone forever. Julia Hartley Brewer a prime example.

The trouble with Julia Hartley Brewer and Talk Radio
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-6hsky-10a5d1d?utm_campaign=w_share_ep&utm_medium=dlink&utm_source=w_share

Stand in South Hill Park Bracknell every Sunday from 10am meet fellow anti lockdown freedom lovers, keep yourself sane, make new friends and have a laugh.

Join our Stand in the Park – Bracknell – Telegram Group
http://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell

0
0
Winston Smith
Winston Smith
3 years ago
Reply to  Van Allen

What the fuck are you talking about?

The whole fucking mess is built on a lie, PCR tests test fuck all, apart from random, historical viral proteins.

Experimental, unlicensed drugs for an unexceptional ‘flu type illness is fucking mental and if you are suckered into the madness then your are part of the problem.

Give me strength.

18
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
3 years ago
Reply to  Winston Smith

Absolutely agree.

Still too many on here obsessing about the C.

This is the Reset and that means Depopulation, stringent Social Control of those remaining via implanted chips and so on.

Huxley’s Brave New World and Orwell’s 1984 combined.

People need to Wake Up.

6
0
Rogerborg
Rogerborg
3 years ago
Reply to  Van Allen

Never, ever try to compromise with irrational tyranny using rational arguments, chap.

The tyrants don’t care, and all you’re doing is flagging yourself up to have your Thinking Checked.

4
-1
RW
RW
3 years ago
Reply to  Van Allen

There’s no rational reason why someone who “came in contact” with somebody else who wasn’t sick would need to be “isolated”, this being a euphemism for incarcerated. Illness isn’t a sin and punishment not a cure.

Must be punished because he could become sick in future is something which applies to all people equally, regardless who their “contacts” were. Especially, as this procedure isn’t reliable as not all healthy people whose bodies contained splinters of unauthorized, natural RNA will be detected.

2
0
Moist Von Lipwig
Moist Von Lipwig
3 years ago

Of course it is, Kim Jong Johnson finally found a policy, the worst possible policy, to dig his heels in on.

He clung to this absurd policy and ignored all the damage it did, indicating that doing damage was his goal.

13
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Marmalade
Marmalade
3 years ago

Why anyone would need an ‘app’ to tell them if they can go out is beyond me.

33
0
PoshPanic
PoshPanic
3 years ago
Reply to  Marmalade

In a world where some people need to be told how many steps to take per day, anything is possible.

9
0
Julian
Julian
3 years ago

There should never have been an app. It’s a colossal, useless waste of money and an unwarranted intrusion of privacy and disruption of ordinary life. It’s worse than the lockdowns in a way (well, it is a form of lockdown in itself) – a lockdown can be removed at zero cost and is designed to be temporary (!?!?!?), whereas once you’ve spent billions on an app and associated infrastructure no government will chuck it all away immediately – it will hang around for years to justify the cost.

22
0
Mark
Mark
3 years ago
Reply to  Julian

Yet another condemnation of big government. The list is long, the bill is immense, but the believers don’t stop believing.

9
0
Julian
Julian
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark

Indeed. I suppose one has been guilty of being somewhat acquiescent on the issue of big government until recently. I’ve never been a big fan of it (or of hugely powerful private corporations either) but by and large up until 2020 they’ve not interfered in my life enough to make me too concerned (though the free speech issue has been bothering me for a while now). That acquiescence, shared by many no doubt, turns out to have been a huge mistake, with the benefit of hindsight.

8
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
3 years ago
Reply to  Julian

And for that reason I have joined Toby’s FSU.

2
0
Mark
Mark
3 years ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

Me too The FSU is at least a start, though it (in the person of its founder certainly) still kowtows to the core illiberalities suppressing speech in our society.

But in a society whose elites almost entirely believe in the suppression of taboo opinions and facts, those few who, like the FSU, push the boundaries back at least a little, and who provide real, substantial support for the victims of encroaching totalitarianism, are much to be valued.

4
0
KidFury
KidFury
3 years ago

Don’t believe it. I reckon people are uninstalling it and they will just claim they changed it and it made a difference.

13
0
Aleajactaest
Aleajactaest
3 years ago

never masked, never isolated, never restricted movement, never jabbed, never installed app, never gave details. Still alive. Still sane.

35
0
Winston Smith
Winston Smith
3 years ago
Reply to  Aleajactaest

Me too, although I’m not sure I’m still sane 😒

7
0
Mark
Mark
3 years ago
Reply to  Winston Smith

In a world run by the irrational, the rational man is “mad”.

(Though he’s still sane and they’re still insane.)

5
0
Rogerborg
Rogerborg
3 years ago

I’m very surprised that The Sun Sez to ditch the Spy-and-Snitch app.

Presumably they’re just “pacing and leading” for when they cheerlead the “Vaccine Passport” next month, and celebrate how it will “free” us to return to the footie and nighclubs.

I mean… to… continue to return.

Still, take the win, and encourage your nearest and dearest to bin Spy-and-Snitch.

I strongly suspect though that it’s only still being used by public, third and salaried sector employees who want another 10 day paid holiday.

5
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
3 years ago
Reply to  Rogerborg

Presumably TPTB can simply order a set number of pings per day in order to keep the figures and charade in an upward mode.

4
0
FrankiiB
FrankiiB
3 years ago

I think, deviously, that this app is only still here because Johnson and cronies will try, in future, to justify their colossal mis-spending by saying look cases are falling, all down to the app. Bullshit of course. Time to scrap the app. Worth pointing out that nowhere in the world is following such an insane policy on the level of GB (although plenty of places are following other insane policies). More tests being done in GB than the whole of Europe combined.

It’s not difficult to fix it. Scrap the app. Only PCR test people with symptoms. Check, if you really must at all, with temperature scanners on entry. Personally, I wouldn’t bother; just get on with life.

7
0
PoshPanic
PoshPanic
3 years ago
Reply to  FrankiiB

They may as well install a lucky dip at the entrance to every public venue. None of these measures work.

3
0
Moist Von Lipwig
Moist Von Lipwig
3 years ago
Reply to  FrankiiB

Yes, it’s about saving face and covering arse, may the damage done be damned, according to Kim Jong Johnson.

3
0
The Rule of Pricks
The Rule of Pricks
3 years ago

It was never fit for purpose and simply an example of how government and the civil service are children playing with toys that are way beyond them.

I used to work in algorhythmic and HFT trading. The way trading systems (apps) are implemented is that you set the aim (make money), build the app, run it and then analyse the results. If youre not getting the results you want or could improve those results then you tweak the functionality or adjust the parameters and try again. The you analyse the results again and so on.

EVERY SINGLE DAY!

The Covid app as far as I know has never been assessed/tweaked/changed from day one.

They should set the target result (lets say for every person who causes the app to ping people, at least 50% of those people should go on to develop Covid) and take a rolling random sample from the previous 7 days to see if they are getting those results. If not then tweak the parameters and keep going until you do.

If someone suggested running a trading app the way they have run this they would be laughed at and sacked on the spot.

Without doing that it renders it useless and as people have pointed out here, lends itself to the suspicion that pinging Covid exposure is not the primary purpose of the app……

6
0
Mark
Mark
3 years ago
Reply to  The Rule of Pricks

Good points, though your final point, raising the question of what it might really have been about is spot on, imo.

The whole test and trace concept was already redundant when it was thought up – such activity was known to be futile once a respiratory virus was established in the country. It was absolutely a matter of: “something must be done, and we must be seen to be doing something. This is something….”

And the fact that it involved splurging vast amounts of other people’s money, thereby generating power and influence for the decision makers, was a big bonus.

2
0
Lockdown Sceptic
Lockdown Sceptic
3 years ago

Of course the only good will com is when all Covid App, Covid Restrictions, Covid Jabs and the entire political and media class who are forcing this nonsense on us are gone forever. Julia Hartley Brewer a prime example.

The trouble with Julia Hartley Brewer and Talk Radio
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-6hsky-10a5d1d?utm_campaign=w_share_ep&utm_medium=dlink&utm_source=w_share

Stand in South Hill Park Bracknell every Sunday from 10am meet fellow anti lockdown freedom lovers, keep yourself sane, make new friends and have a laugh.

Join our Stand in the Park – Bracknell – Telegram Group
http://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell

1
0

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