After nearly four weeks of not answering simple questions, the Government has decided to kill the Covid-19 Contact Tracing App that was trialled on the Isle of Wight.
As reported this morning, the App has not been updated for over four weeks, as Islanders were kept in the dark about its effectiveness.
BBC: NHS abandons centralised contact tracing App
The BBC are reporting that current centralised version of the App will be replaced by one using decentralised technology developed by Google/Apple.
BBC scoop – NHS abandons centralised contact tracing app, moves to Apple/Google decentralised model— Rory Cellan-Jones (@ruskin147) June 18, 2020
Lowthion: Government must make Apology and a Thank You to the people of the Isle of Wight
Spokesperson for the Isle of Wight Green Party, told News OnTheWight,
“The good people of the Isle of Wight deserve an apology from this government. The decision to shelve the NHSX App was not taken today – they have known for weeks that the App just does not work, and yet still encouraged Islanders to download it. Why?
“Islanders stood up to the mark and downloaded it in good faith to ‘do their duty’ and ‘lead the way’. The reality was that the App had no NHS Ethics Approval, no privacy legislation and no declared success criteria.
We were used as lab rats for a costly experiment set to be worth £250million. Someone has got rich out of this, and it is not the Isle of Wight.“Like so much of this Covid Crisis, the Government has managed the development of this App appallingly. But they can make some amends.
An Apology and a Thank You to the people of the Isle of Wight is the very least that the Government must make, if we are to have any faith that Government understand the sacrifices made and the contribution given by Islanders throughout the last few weeks.”
Quigley: “Isle of Wight residents should still be proud”
Richard Quigley for Island Labour said,
“Obviously it’s disappointing that the trial isn’t leading anywhere. However, even if the Government was unable to take this further, Isle of Wight residents should still be proud that so many of them were willing to participate in trying to make something constructive happen during the crisis.”
Stuart: Over-promised and under-delivered
Nick Stuart, chair of the Isle of Wight Liberal Democrats, said:
“The App collapse is a real shame as this could have been handled so much better. The Government took a flawed approach without listening to expertise, on the App, or on testing, tracking & tracing. They stubbornly insisted on building a bespoke application using a centralised approach, when many warned of its weaknesses. They largely ignored ethical and privacy fears.
“Our suggestions focused on keeping the confidence of Islanders where many felt duty bound to get the App and support the NHS. We told the Government they needed full regular disclosure of results and protection of individual security and data. We told them they had to carry out large scale rapid local testing to catch both non-symptomatic and symptomatic cases, tracing with local Public Health teams, and managed isolation.
“The UK has one of the highest death tolls in the world and the Island has had more avoidable deaths than some developing countries. We need Government to engage in honest and transparent dialogue with the public rather than constantly taking a PR based approach to communications where what happens is we find out, yet again, that they over-promised and under-delivered.”
Article edit
3.45pm 18th June 2020 – comment from Quigley added
5.30pm 18th June 2020 – comment from Stuart added
