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I think the whole idea of 'contact tracing' isn't really that valuable in the long term anyway. New Zealand recently broke their 100-day free streak, and Austra
by aboringusername 6y ago
I think the whole idea of 'contact tracing' isn't really that valuable in the long term anyway. New Zealand recently broke their 100-day free streak, and Australia has implemented strict lockdown measures, as well as South Korea.
Most important is understanding the virus in the community - getting people tested (which they don't have to do), and spotting trends (positive person lives in "X" community, we get data on how many people also test positive in the same place) is more important than knowing whether you were in close contact with your friend Betty or where you were at 13:37 5 days ago.
It's hilarious Google/Apple thought "hmm yes, Bluetooth! The perfect protocol to help prevent the spread of a pandemic", and it has spectacularly, and utterly failed. Their APIs are an embarrassment and should've been removed a long time ago. Their arrogance in thinking that crappy protocol can have any part to play in human health/wellbeing is just mind mindbogglingly idiotic.
Apps will not help a pandemic, apart from in the US where they masturbate over your data and want to know your location every second, who your contacts are, who you talk to, what messages you send them, how they can profile/target you better for ads, and how they can feed "big data" machines to later fuck you/others over with more measured/accurate data or AI systems (like clearview) for law enforcement. Hence the whole no US-wide "GDPR" thing because they really want your data.
If your testing capability is low, and if people are not being tested, then everything else is a waste of time. Then you add in societal failures like not getting sick pay, or paid time off if you've got the virus, or incentives to work regardless and you realize 'contact tracing' is just another data gathering excuse.
Because we don't 'contact trace' the flu, or other sicknesses, we accept them as they happen and are a part of life. As the Coronavirus dies down, it'll be in the same bucket, where people just have it, get over it, and that's all there is to it.
Contact tracing has failed in any substantial form, as the recent outbreaks across the world have demonstrated.
- 9nGQluzmnq3M 6y agoI hate to rain on a good rant, but do you have any actual data to back up all these strong assertions? Contact tracing (the old fashioned kind) works quite well when it's done aggressively and case counts are low. However, for most of the Western world neither is true, and throwing Bluetooth at the problem isn't going to help. Neither can it magically prevent infections from people who don't know they're contagious, which we've come to realize is a significant feature of how COVID spreads.
- vertis 6y agoAgreed, Australia and NZ are doing aggressive manual contact tracing (in addition to the app that was released in Australia in April). Last I checked NZ had managed to link all but two of the cases back to the one source. Victoria (AU) likewise has managed to trace the majority of cases to a breach in the quarantine hotel, because security guards weren't wearing PPE and were sharing a cigarette lighter (if I am correct). It's part of a tool chest, as is the lockdown, the masks. As much as I am glad not to be locked in Australia/NZ right now, I am proud of how they've been handling it in general.
- kiwidrew 6y ago> If your testing capability is low, and if people are not being tested, then everything else is a waste of time. Then you add in societal failures like not getting sick pay, or paid time off if you've got the virus, or incentives to work regardless and you realize 'contact tracing' is just another data gathering excuse. This. I'm sick and tired of people thinking that some clever Bluetooth API is going to somehow magically solve the very real social and political issues that are preventing certain countries from getting the virus under control. [For a start: what about people who, for all sorts of perfectly valid reasons, don't have a (compatible) smartphone with them at all times? There are a lot more of them than you might think.]
- 9nGQluzmnq3M 6y agoYou do what Singapore does and pass out bulletproof hardware tokens (no charging needed/possible) that do the same job. https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/10000-seniors-get-first-batch-of-tracetogether-tokens https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/10000-seniors-get-fir...