[LINK] COVIDfail – the Australian coronavirus tracing app that can’t find anyone

[Karl Auer]

On Tue, 2020-07-14 at 09:00 +1000, Tom Worthington wrote:
> Compared to other government COVID-19 initiatives, the App was cheap
> and at least has done no harm so far. Because of a lack of planning, 
> governments threw money at whatever might work.

It cost a lot of money that could have been far better spent on other
things.

They spent the money in the direct face of clear competent advice that
it would not work. They KEPT spending money in the face not only of
advice but also evidence.

At least for some people and possibly for a great many people, they
deliberately fostered a completely misplaced sense of security
("sunscreen") which certainly could have and for all we know actually
did lead to infections.

The program is yet another IT debacle undermining confidence in the
Government and in their otherwise reasonably good messaging about the
virus. In particular, any future app, even one that might be effective,
will see near-zero uptake.

How are these things not harms?

Regards, K,

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer
http://twitter.com/kauer389

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