South Africa's COVID-19 contract tracing has failed to meet targets - Professor Madhi

[Jamie McKane]

South Africa's COVID-19 contract tracing has failed to meet targets - Professor Madhi

The South African government's COVID-19 contact tracing initiative, assisted by the COVID-19 Alert SA app, has failed to help the country meet its contact tracing targets.

This is according to Wits University professor Shabir Madhi, who told the Sunday Times that contact tracing has never been successful locally.

 

[friedpiggy]

Not a chance I am installing that thing. Yes, it doesnt use GPS or blah blah blah, but who knows what future updates might bring.

 

[garp]

For a highly contagious virus where up to 80% of carriers are asymptomatic, contact tracing is futile beyond the very early stages of an outbreak.

 

[semiautomatix]

Not a chance I am installing that thing. Yes, it doesnt use GPS or blah blah blah, but who knows what future updates might bring.

It is, however, hypocritical to expect the government to resolve this pandemic and then turn around and refuse to provide any assistance to said government.

 

[ghostim]

contract ?​

 

[agentrfr]

Government approved spyware?

Haha.

No.

 

[dabbler]

I have an old phone and installing that app caused my battery to die even quicker than if did before installed it, so I uninstalled it to preserve my battery.

 

[FNfal]

With an IFR so low what is the point ?
"0-19 years: 0.00003
20-49 years: 0.0002
50-69 years: 0.005
70+ years: 0.054"

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

CDC provides credible COVID-19 health information to the U.S.

www.cdc.gov

 

[semiautomatix]

With an IFR so low what is the point ?
"0-19 years: 0.00003
20-49 years: 0.0002
50-69 years: 0.005
70+ years: 0.054"

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

CDC provides credible COVID-19 health information to the U.S.

www.cdc.gov

Maybe if you'd lost grandparents to this disease you wouldn't be so flippant.

A plague a' your house.

 

[Zukat]

It is, however, hypocritical to expect the government to resolve this pandemic and then turn around and refuse to provide any assistance to said government.

It doesnt look like you live in South Africa, here we actually pray for the opposite- for government to do nothing about it, to avoid bringing more harm beyond what was already down by them during the so called first wave.

It is simple, in the risk group or scared of the virus- stay at home. Everyone else- go on with your lives.

 

[FNfal]

Maybe if you'd lost grandparents to this disease you wouldn't be so flippant.

A plague a' your house.

May be i am a grand Pa
Fact are facts .

 

[Papa Smurf]

main question here is How much is this spyware app costing us citizens? im guessing around R100mill for the BEEEE tender that got this one

 

[Toastmaster]

main question here is How much is this spyware app costing us citizens? im guessing around R100mill for the BEEEE tender that got this one

It was created by one of the big 4 dev houses in South Africa, not Sipo's backyard outsourced grad developer.

 

[Papa Smurf]

It was created by one of the big 4 dev houses in South Africa, not Sipo's backyard outsourced grad developer.

yes, but if ANC has their pesky fingers involved how much is it really costing?

 

[Toastmaster]

yes, but if ANC has their pesky fingers involved how much is it really costing?

You make a good point. I didn't take into account all the middlemen between said dev house and ANC.

 

[Papa Smurf]

The app uses Bluetooth signals to exchange random codes with other COVID Alert SA app users. This happens when their smartphones are within two metres of each other for more than 15 minutes.

The codes that are exchanged are then stored in a log on each phone for two weeks.

 

[semiautomatix]

May be i am a grand Pa
Fact are facts .

And when you remove emotion and actual faces from any situation, it all becomes easier to justify. Facts may be facts, but they're most certainly not in isolation when human lives are at stake.

World War Two had a similar mortality rate to COVID-19, so what was all the hullabaloo?

 

[semiautomatix]

It was created by one of the big 4 dev houses in South Africa, not Sipo's backyard outsourced grad developer.

In Australia the app has identified 16 contacts, not even cases. So it's virtually useless.

 

[neoprema]

anyone thinking the technology is spyware clearly has the technical understanding of a dead duck. Because its been taken apart and studied and the protocols its using have been studied ad nauseum.

The problem is however, its nonsense for 2 reasons;
1. It depends on the person who is infected to actually say so. How many people will do that?
2. Any bored 15-yr old with a phone can install it and mark themselves as infected while they hang out at the mall setting everyone's phones off after 10mins or so of proximity.

You will never have true contact tracing while people have a choice. Chip implants or some other form of bio-metric marking that is controlled by a 3rd-party would work. Like making everyone get a chip implanted (just something normal, not whatever nonsense conspiracy theorists dream up of) that tracks certain status about you including your ID. Then if you test positive for COVID-19 or other diseases, the data is pushed to the chip at next sync. You then simply force people to sync by mandating it for access to common public areas, or when traveling, or wherever else. If you build-in tap-to-pay into the chips too you are already moving people to "sync" themselves as well. A central system maintains global control of the data and we're sorted. At any second you know exactly who's infected and their movement.
But yeah, tech like this is just a dream for now.

 

[Lupus]

Maybe if you'd lost grandparents to this disease you wouldn't be so flippant.

A plague a' your house.

If and maybes, you'd be so flippant of anything that killed people you loved.