A leaked email from the chief executive of Serco, tasked with contact tracing, revealed he doubted the scheme would evolve smoothly, but said he wanted it to “cement the position of the private sector” in the NHS supply chain
https://www.theguardian.com/society...e-operating-fully-until-september-coronavirus
Hmm, ignoring the mobile app, the manual track and trace system has no mechanism for localised reactions to covid hotspots. This is THE most important part of track and trace. It allows localised lcokdowns and strategies to deal with localised outbreaks.The track and trace system is not worthless. It is just that the computer app is not working properly yet so the system is virtually a manual one.
Having worked in IT, it is patently obvious that to promise these systems to be "world class" by a certain time when the analysis, programming and testing of the system has not been completed is asking for embarrassment.
Hmm, ignoring the mobile app, the manual track and trace system has no mechanism for localised reactions to covid hotspots. This is THE most important part of track and trace. It allows localised lcokdowns and strategies to deal with localised outbreaks.
If this doesn't work, it is pretty much worthless. It will allow you to try and contain outbreaks but that is based on trust with the people you have contacted following the isolation advice.
It has no mechanism to analyse the data coming in and look for hotspots.
At risk of sounding incredibly naive, what was at risk by sourcing applications already in use worldwide for this function? It's my understanding that South Korea has a well functioning (world-beating?) application in place. If I were procuring a system to fit this profile that supplier would be towards the top of my list of contacts.
The risk is the API might not allow Dominic Cummings and his mates to harvest your dataAt risk of sounding incredibly naive, what was at risk by sourcing applications already in use worldwide for this function? It's my understanding that South Korea has a well functioning (world-beating?) application in place. If I were procuring a system to fit this profile that supplier would be towards the top of my list of contacts.
Update. Still no reply.BTW I've still had no response from my data integrity questions about the system. I imagine that'll stay the case.
This is exactly how it works, I use a government system for work, it is woeful.Entirely agree with this. The whole approach of the government to contact tracing has made no sense from the start.
Local authorities and Public Health England already employ people whose jobs include elements of contact tracing, through dealing either with food poisoning incidents or STDs. These people are therefore experienced, trained and have adequate data handling protocols to have played a significant role in contact training for Covid-19. As they are locally based, it would also have enabled the identification of hotspots as you suggest.
For the government to have simply cut these organisations out of the picture and go straight to a private sector company with no experience of delivering such a system, who have then recruited people with no experience of undertaking the task, makes no sense whatsoever. Apart from the usual reasons why they would award a contract to their private sector mates, of course.