4 ms·

The COVIDSafe app was a failure and waste of tax payer money. Everyone knows it. The federal government has spent the last year and a half trying to change the

by jeeeb 5y ago

The COVIDSafe app was a failure and waste of tax payer money. Everyone knows it. The federal government has spent the last year and a half trying to change the narrative, mostly unsuccessfully. State governments developed their own QR code based systems which seem to work.. up to a limit. Those systems worked to stop multiple outbreaks - e.g. NSW contract traced their way out of several outbreaks without significant restrictions. The question I felt was unanswered by the article is have overseas apps actually delivered significantly better results than that? The actual big difference between Australia and most other developed nations seems to be that we are behind on our vaccine rollout and more willing/able to restrict individual movement, especially across state borders. Our vaccine rollout should catch up over the next month or so. NSW is approaching 90% first doses for over 16’s. VIC is approaching 80%. The dose spacing for AZ is particularly long, and at least VIC is using 6 week spacing for Pfizer so Australia tends to lag more on 2nd dose figures but that gap will close over the coming month. On a side note, all the information the author wishes was in the COVIDSafe app is also readily available on state government websites - e.g. coronavirus.vic.gov.au. Personally I prefer having this information on a website than in an app.

ghuntley 5y ago
> The question I felt was unanswered by the article is have overseas apps actually delivered significantly better results than that? 1. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AusOpenTech/COVIDSafe-Report/main/Report%20on%20the%20operation%20and%20effectiveness%20of%20the%20COVIDSafe%20application.pdf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AusOpenTech/COVIDSafe-Repo... 2. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.04.21257951v4 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.04.21257951v...
- jeeeb 5y ago
  My question was have contract tracing apps overseas performed significantly better than the QR based systems used in Australia (instead of COVIDSafe). Neither of these links seem to show that. The first is a criticism of COVIDSafe. I agree it was crap, but have Bluetooth based contract tracing actually worked well to prevent outbreaks anywhere? Is it actually better than QR code based systems? The second paper you link at least attempts to model this but it’s just that, conclusions drawn from a simulation. In practice there have been many more cases and deaths in Washington State alone than all of Australia, and that’s without adjusting for the much larger population in Australia.
  - ghuntley 5y ago
    > QR based systems used in Australia (instead of COVIDSafe) I deeply feel that QR should have been built into COVIDSafe as well as use GAEN. That way at least the collected data would have been protected by strong federal legislation vs the early days where businesses were asking people to "checkin" to their marketing platforms and the data was used to harvest email addresses.
    - account15151315 5y ago
      GAEN would not have provided contact tracers with information about contacts.
      - ghuntley 5y ago
        Incorrect.
        reitzensteinm 5y ago
        Care to explain how?
fy20 5y ago
> The question I felt was unanswered by the article is have overseas apps actually delivered significantly better results than that? My country rolled out an app quite early last year. It worked well, didn't drain battery life, didn't need you to "sign up" or provide any personal details. The problem was pretty much nobody installed it, so it was basically useless. They also tried strict contact tracing, requiring people to register whenever they go into a bar or restaurant, but that also didn't work (most outbreaks were from meeting family or in the workplace). Now my country has given up on contact tracing and moved to accepting the virus will be here forever, and is trying to encourage more people to be vaccinated.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
tonfreed 5y ago
The thing that pissed me off the most was that they took gpl licensed software and slapped more terms and conditions on it. Some suit didn't read the original license and thought it was just free code.

by jeeeb 5y ago

ghuntley 5y ago

> The question I felt was unanswered by the article is have overseas apps actually delivered significantly better results than that? 1. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AusOpenTech/COVIDSafe-Report/main/Report%20on%20the%20operation%20and%20effectiveness%20of%20the%20COVIDSafe%20application.pdf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AusOpenTech/COVIDSafe-Repo... 2. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.04.21257951v4 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.04.21257951v...

jeeeb 5y ago
My question was have contract tracing apps overseas performed significantly better than the QR based systems used in Australia (instead of COVIDSafe). Neither of these links seem to show that. The first is a criticism of COVIDSafe. I agree it was crap, but have Bluetooth based contract tracing actually worked well to prevent outbreaks anywhere? Is it actually better than QR code based systems? The second paper you link at least attempts to model this but it’s just that, conclusions drawn from a simulation. In practice there have been many more cases and deaths in Washington State alone than all of Australia, and that’s without adjusting for the much larger population in Australia.
- ghuntley 5y ago
  > QR based systems used in Australia (instead of COVIDSafe) I deeply feel that QR should have been built into COVIDSafe as well as use GAEN. That way at least the collected data would have been protected by strong federal legislation vs the early days where businesses were asking people to "checkin" to their marketing platforms and the data was used to harvest email addresses.
  - account15151315 5y ago
    GAEN would not have provided contact tracers with information about contacts.
    - ghuntley 5y ago
      Incorrect.
      - reitzensteinm 5y ago
        Care to explain how?

fy20 5y ago

> The question I felt was unanswered by the article is have overseas apps actually delivered significantly better results than that? My country rolled out an app quite early last year. It worked well, didn't drain battery life, didn't need you to "sign up" or provide any personal details. The problem was pretty much nobody installed it, so it was basically useless. They also tried strict contact tracing, requiring people to register whenever they go into a bar or restaurant, but that also didn't work (most outbreaks were from meeting family or in the workplace). Now my country has given up on contact tracing and moved to accepting the virus will be here forever, and is trying to encourage more people to be vaccinated.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

tonfreed 5y ago

The thing that pissed me off the most was that they took gpl licensed software and slapped more terms and conditions on it. Some suit didn't read the original license and thought it was just free code.