The government’s decision to try and develop its own ‘test and trace’ app seems bizarre at first glance. Who is going to be better at developing an app, the UK government or Apple and Google? Even inside government, there are those who regard the decision to try and go it alone as technological hubris.
But the reason that the government is so keen to determine its own app is that the decentralised Apple and Google one doesn’t allow you to easily identify where infections are spiking. The government really wants this information as it is key to its plan for easing social distancing restrictions and keeping on top of the virus. As the plan published today puts it, the government wants to stop hotspots developing ‘by detecting infection outbreaks at a more localised level and rapidly intervening with targeted measures’.
At the moment, local hotspots are currently being identified by hospital admissions. But if you are using that as your guide, you are almost certainly too late to stop the virus from spreading rapidly – people tend to only get admitted to hospital with coronavirus after they have had it for some time.
If the government app doesn’t work and the UK has to fall back on the Google/ Apple one, a major element of the government’s plan for controlling the virus will fall away. If you can’t identify local hotspots, then you are on the road back to the sledgehammer approach of national lockdowns, which are so economically damaging. So a huge amount rests on whether or not the government app works or not.
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