It simply won't work. If you receive a notification that you came within a few metres of someone who might have had symptoms of the virus, what are you going to do then? Hancock says you can 'act accordingly'. What does 'act accordingly' actually mean? You may wish to be tested. But you can't, because testing in the UK is not available to the general public.
Are you (and your entire household?) going to self-isolate for 14 days on the basis of a phone notification, when you have zero symptoms?
95% would not do so. When citizens get more than a couple of such notifications, they will just ignore them completely.
The three planks to containing the virus and saving lives are: strategic policy informed by mass-testing, both for infection and antibody presence: official encouragement of face-coverings in any social situation of close physical proximity. And the use of repurposed drugs (properly prescribed) in clinics and hospitals.
Patients critically ill from Cytokine Release Syndrome (which may show as ARD or pneumonitis) can be saved by the use of the anti-IL6 agent Tocilizumab.
The UK does not allow physicians to so prescribe.
(The SITC already urges for the use of anti-IL6 in critical cases)
The UK is also one of the last European countries still prohibiting the use of Chloroquine / Hydroxychloroquine, and there is now sufficient evidence that it in many cases, it prevents symptom escalation, and speeds virus clearance.
The UK has failed on all three counts.Very low testing rates. No testing available to the mass of the population.
The BBC puts out 'reality check' articles and then states that the general public shouldn't bother with masks!
Contrast that with many countries across the world, where the wearing of masks in public is the routine expectation.
And the countries with the lowest death rates are those that are actively using repurposed drugs.
S. Korea is the shining example on all three counts.
Thus we see a terrible cases to death ratio in the UK currently in the region of 12%.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
