Thought of the Day - August 18 2021 - Apps Gone Wild

I have talked on a number of occasions about the criticality of proper testing, quality control, launch preparation, and production monitoring for all the new pandemic-driven systems that our authorities are introducing (e.g. Thought of the Day - March 10 - BC Vaccine Registration Underway ).

UK Cases

Last month, I alluded to a phenomenon referred to as "the pingdemic" happening across the UK ( Thought of the Day - July 25 2021 - By the Numbers ). Now, a month later, stories are surfacing about how close this issue came to shutting down the entire nation.

The issue stemmed from the sensitivity settings of the widely-used automated NHS COVID contact tracing app, coupled with the UK's massive case wave that peaked in July.

As you can see, in the third week of July, the number of automated self-isolation alerts sent in just England and Wales was nearly 700,000. Of course, having millions of people plunged into self-isolation across Great Britain and Northern Ireland had a dramatic real-time impact on the workforce and indeed everyday life.

Here are a few examples:

• One of the world's largest brake pad manufacturers, TMD Friction, said 15% of its UK staff had to isolate at one point after being pinged by the NHS app.

• The Old Inn, Clevedon, North Somerset, England lost out on thousands of pounds when it had to close its doors for 10 days in July after staff and owners were 'pinged' to isolate.

• The supermarket chain, Iceland, said that after keeping all of its stores open during lockdown, it had to shut some last month because it lost 1,000 staff.

• Even, the BBC has taken the unusual decision to stop making some of its local news programmes for an extended period because of staff shortages blamed on the coronavirus self-isolation “pingdemic”.

Moreover, parents were forced to stay at home, at a moment's notice, to look after children who had been sent home from school to isolate, or from daycares forced to close when pings were received.

The initial response was to allow some essential workers - for example, those working in food distribution - to be exempt from having to self-isolate if pinged; instead, they had to take daily tests.

Now, new rules have been put in place across the UK to the effect that the "double-jabbed" and those under 18s no longer have to isolate if they come into contact with a positive case. Instead of having to quarantine for 10 days, they are now advised to take a PCR test - but this is not compulsory.

While the whole episode is a great public illustration of the spread rate of the Delta variant, it was also an illustration of the dramatic impact hurried automation, without the right checks and balances, can have.

Cheers

Cliff