Germany prepares to launch COVID-19 contact-tracing app 'this week' while UK version stuck in development hell
- Reference: 1592224212
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/06/15/germany_contact_tracing/
- Source link:
In an interview with ARD Television, Spahn said the contact-tracing app will launch "this week" although failed to give a specific day. [1]According to Reuters , local media expects a Tuesday launch.
Contact tracing is regarded as a vital tool to limit the spread of COVID-19, allowing society to return to something resembling pre-pandemic norms. In epidemiology circles, it's an established practice that allows investigators to identify the origins and proliferation of a particular disease. The key difference here is scale, with contact tracing being deployed across a wider population, facilitated by smartphones.
Contact-tracing or contact sport? Defections and accusations emerge among European COVID-chasing app efforts [2]READ MORE
Germany's app uses Bluetooth signals to identify interactions between individuals, with the proximity and duration recorded and stored locally. These are logged on the device, rather than retained on a centralised server. When an individual is formally diagnosed, the app will upload a list of keys belonging to those they've had contact with. A central server will then issue warnings, telling individuals to get tested or otherwise self-isolate.
Efforts to launch a contact-tracing app in German have been beset with problems, prompting a wholesale redesign in April to a decentralised model. The country previously championed the Pan European Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing (PEPP-PT), which has has faced its own challenges, [3]both technical and in terms of governance .
Consequently, it has lagged behind other industrialised nations, including South Korea, Singapore, and Italy.
Sadly, things in the UK are worse. The NHS's contact-tracing app – which was developed [4]in partnership with US tech giant VMWare , as well as smaller Swiss firm Zuhlke Engineering – is still nowhere to be seen after it was trialled on the Isle of Wight from 5 May.
NHSX CEO Matthew Gould had said the app was due to launch across the rest of the UK between two to three weeks after the Isle of Wigh test case. Now it is expected at some point in June.
Unlike Germany, the UK National Health Service's app's "centralised" data approach has raised a number of [5]privacy and data protection concerns . The app's developers have also found themselves battling technical problems, particularly when it comes to allowing interactions between Android and iOS devices.
Track-and-trace tsar Dido Harding – perhaps best known for her disastrous tenure as chief of UK ISP TalkTalk – is [6]yet to confirm a formal launch date . In the meantime, the NHS is relying on a recruited army of human contact-tracers to call the infected and grill them on their interactions so they can warn them to stay home.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised to hire 25,000 contact-tracers, contradicting an earlier figure from health secretary Matt Hancock, who promised 18,000. One source speaking to The Register described these as "furloughed workers" with no real experience, but added they were being supported by others from the civil service who have been seconded to help, including environmental health officers and social workers. ®
Sponsored: [7]Modernizing Your .NET Application for Google Cloud Platform
[1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-germany-app/germany-says-coronavirus-tracing-app-ready-to-go-idUSKBN23L0P5?il=0
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2020/04/20/pepp_pt_dp_3t_robert/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2020/04/20/pepp_pt_dp_3t_robert/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2020/05/12/vmware_tannzu_nhs_app/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2020/05/14/nhs_contact_tracing_app/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2020/05/28/england_covid19_contact_tracing_launch_shambles/
[7] https://go.theregister.com/tl/1956/-8473/modernizing-your-net-application-for-google-cloud-platform?td=wptl1956
The number "60%" has been spread around like a virus, but it's not true. _Any_ amount of uptake will help. The more the better obviously, but any uptake helps.
Now there are two problems: In UK, people who rightfully are wondering why their government has to record everything and store it for twenty years, protected by the most unprotective woman who the could possible find for the job. And everywhere, the paranoid who don't trust an Apple with an API produced by Apple and Google (when it is common sense that if these two companies wanted any information about you, they would have it. If you don't trust your phone maker then you might as well move to some remote island).
it is common sense that if these two companies wanted any information about you, they would have it.
I wonder how...I've never owned or operated anything apple, and try to keep Google usage at a minimum.
I don't trust any current 'smart' phone - yet have not moved to any remote islands.
Taiwaz, as I said, go to a remote island.
Which is why...
> _Any_ amount of uptake will help. The more the better obviously, but any uptake helps.
Clearly that's not true.
Which is why Singapore, where they have the control, are looking at deploying compulsory wristbands that aren't subject to the constraints of other devices.
With the rate the infection rates are dropping, the chances of encountering someone who has both the virus and the contact tracing app are minimal.
"With the rate the infection rates are dropping, the chances of encountering someone who has both the virus and the contact tracing app are minimal."
You should use the app, no matter how low the infection rate is. If you are unlucky enough to get close to the last person in Britain that gets infected, then using the app can protect you from starting another outbreak.
"more attempts at early diagnosis of people with no or mild symptoms"
I've been having a rethink about this. Is there a genetic element on the viral side to asymptomatic infections? Killing the host is a poor strategy for a virus. This particular virus is endemic to bats. Presumably it has adapted to the bat environment to be able to propagate without causing significant damage to the bats so the ground isn't littered with bats falling out of the sky. It isn't. however, similarly adapted to the human environment, or not completely so, but like all viruses it does mutate. Darwinian thinking suggests that it should evolve to become harmless like the coronaviruses that cause common colds.
If there is a spectrum of harmfulness in the various viral strains then we'll already have been exerting a selection pressure in favour of the milder varieties by isolating those with symptoms and their households and segregating those with the worst symptoms in hospital for treatment. Track and trace based only on the symptomatic cases would increase that pressure. Does the variability needed for this to work exist? It's one of the things I'd expect virologists to be looking at because its such an obvious issue but I haven't read anything about it.
Nevertheless tracing of contacts should be followed up with testing; there's no point in isolating those who didn't catch anything.
I understand bats have immune systems that are particularly resistant to viral illness - which is an adaptive advantage if you spend all winter huddled up next to hundreds of your mates in a damp cave, but does mean they are quite good at harbouring zoonotic diseases that do kill other species.
That's the plan
IIRC if you're contact traced, you'll be offered a test. But. It doesn't get you out of jail if it's negative. You still have to do the quarantine. I guess they're wary of false negatives, though that doesn't exactly fill me full of confidence if the Test part of Test, Track and Trace.
With grateful thanks to the Python crew [no not you Guido]
Some things in life are bad
They can really make you mad
Other things just make you swear and curse
When you're chewing on life's gristle
Don't grumble, give a whistle
And this'll help things turn out for the best
And always look on the bright side of life
Always look on the light side of life
If life seems jolly rotten
There's something you've forgotten
And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing
When you're feeling in the dumps
Don't be silly chumps
Just purse your lips and whistle, that's the thing
And always look on the bright side of life
Come on!
Always look on the right side of life
For life is quite absurd
And death's the final word
You must always face the curtain with a bow
Forget about your sin
Give the audience a grin
Enjoy it, it's your last chance anyhow
So, always look on the bright side of death
A-just before you draw your terminal breath
Life's a piece of shit
When you look at it
Life's a laugh and death's a joke, it's true
You'll see it's all a show
Keep 'em laughing as you go
Just remember that the last laugh is on you
And always look on the bright side of life
Always look on the right side of life
C'mon Brian, cheer up!
Always look on the bright side of life
Always look on the bright side of life
Worse things happen at sea, you know
Always look on the bright side of life
I mean, what have you got to lose
You know, you come from nothing, you're going back to nothing
What have you lost? Nothing!
Always look on the right side of life...
Nothing will come from nothing, you know what they say?
Cheer up you old bugger, c'mon give us a grin!
There you are, see, it's the end of the film
Incidentally, this record is available in the foyer
Some of us have to got live as well, you know
Who do you think pays for all this rubbish
They're not gonna make their money back, you know
I told them, I said to them, Bernie, I said they'll never make their money back
"Sadly, things in the UK are worse"
Quite.
Oh what a suprise
As one who has been involved with the shambles that is the NHS, Courts, and other government IT projects, I would have been astounded if it had been ready on time. District management (I use the word management loosely) was always utterly useless at understanding local needs (because they never spoke to the users much) and this meant a re writing of every thing when the local users discovered it didn't do what they needed. Didn't worry me I was paid by the hour.
I was tempted to compare BJ with Fred Karno (allegedly the inventor of the custard pie in the face) and his army but Fred was actually a genius who achieved a lot and got things done. He did also change the face of comedy so Beej does have at least one thing in common with Fred Karno.
Foreign suppliers
Nobody told the American and Swiss developers that much as it is a lovely place to visit, things happen ever so slowly on the Isle of Wight.
Plus ça change plus ç'est la même chose as they say in (some parts of) Switzerland.
It is odd that the UK system requires contactees to undergo what almost amounts to house-arrest for 2 weeks without any option to get a test - maybe the government are expecting a shedload of cases and/or know how limited the UK testing capability actually is.
There's no limit to testing - we have millions of q-tips, envelopes and Matt Hancock popped out and bought a new book of stamps.
Just don't ask about analyzing tests - that's a different issue....
They don't even tell the truth about those few that have actually been tested, count multiple tests on one individual as 'tests'.
Proper planned testing9in significant numbers) on demand by anyone who even thinks they have a sniffle with results that are accessible by those who can do something with the results would be useful but that's a bit advanced for the current lot and I don't think a change of government would improve things.
Any chance of switching things off and then on again?
Which countries are the more hit compared with similar ones? UK, US and Brazil. All governed by a populist nut who uses division and hatred as a mean to gain and keep power.
This is an absolutely not scientific-based opinion, but facts seem to show that getting rid of such buffoons would be a greater help to the public health than an app that can be a threat to privacy.
See for instance [1]here , or how to use a tracing app to ensure the person a company want to work with for a small period of time (approximative translation: The ROTTEN company wants to recruit someone for a short period of time. It want to be sure the candidate doesn't get sick between the job interview and signing the contract. It uses then a dedicated phone which is on only during the interview, and will get an alert if the person is tested as positive later.)
[1] https://risques-tracage.fr/figures/embauche.jpeg
Visibility over Bluetooth
Bluetooth isn't really my wheelhouse, but I'm sure there are some experts out there in the commentardiat, so a question....
Like any security-conscious individual I have Bluetooth set up so that my phone isn't visible to devices that it isn't already paired with - I specifically make my phone visible when I need to pair it with a new thing.
If these contact tracing apps rely on Bluetooth, will they actually be able to detect phones which are hidden like that, or would they rely on people making their phones visible? I'm wondering if hidden means hidden, or if there's something in lower levels of the stack which allow a hidden device to be detected.
Re: Visibility over Bluetooth
You enable the tracking manually. On iOS from the same "Settings" screen that controls Bluetooth. So if you enable tracking, it will override your Bluetooth settings for this single purpose. If you don't enable tracking, it doesn't do anything.
Most important, you are not identifiable.
So track and trace is useful or even necessary to control the spread of the virus, the announcements from BJ and MH are of the order "Look, we are doing something, working really hard, ...." just to divert attention, a la "Look into my Eyes". Like the 750,000 volunteers that signed up in March the tracers seem to have nothing to do, one I know who is on it full-time had not yet had a single call. And they didn't take furloughed people.
What really galled was Her Highness Dido, when asked what the learnings had been, saying that they were getting better at calling people at convenient times. Ye gods.....
England has only relaxed lockdown as soon as thry have to take the heat off Dictator Cummings and his illegal trips.
We thought he was stupid saying he went for a drive to test his eyes, but no, he was just laughing at us. He knew the only person that could fire him was himself.
And all because they need him for forthcoming brexit PR.
The country is fucked
Contact tracing is regarded as a vital tool to limit the spread of COVID-19…
And thus far none of the proposed technical solutions have been particularly good at this. Germany currently has reported new infection rates of 300 - 400, concentrated in a few places in a country of 80 million. Given this background, it is really, really difficult to see how this app, which will need a penetration rate of > 60 % to be statistically useful will really help. And it seems like the people in Singapore have reached a similar conclusion.
More draconian, but perhaps potentially more useful, are the registration lists that restaurants, hairdressers, et al. are keeping. This could be automated and I think we'll probably see more "location restricted" services: you register automatically when you enter and leave somewhere. In which case the German parliament had better get on with a law that means companies cannot require such services. But I think we're also likely to see more attempts at early diagnosis of people with no or mild symptons such as the thermometer "guns" that the Chineese are using. We're also going to get data of the spread in nurseries and schools as they return to normal for a couple of weeks before the summer holidays. This will help improve the modelling, which will in turn, make it easier to make suggestions for targetted restrictions and recommended behaviour and the current blanket bans seem, not just to me, to be undermining society by placing everyone under suspicion.