The COVID Symptom Study app and NHS COVID-19 app are different. Here’s why you need both!

bradders1983

^^^stop being selfish!!! 😂

[Deleted User]

I like to think times like these bring out the best in people, and generally speaking I have seen supportive and charitable acts from most during this pandemic but reading this thread has shown a darker side of peoples behaviours.

The app is just one of many different things put in place to try to control the pandemic, it clearly won't be the only measure that will help either. As with many other measures to try to stop the pandemic, I've noticed that the more people try to ram opinions down other peoples throats, the stronger the objections are, so trying to argue with those who have made up their mind is futile.

There is no evidence yet that the app is reducing infections, they have increased dramatically since it was released so hard to determine whether it works or not. No evidence either of how many have falsely ended up self isolating and the hard ship that has brought, it really is too early to judge whether it is of any use.

Personally I've downloaded the app and I'm happy to use it, but see myself as a beta tester for something that will be better and more useful in the future. I have nothing against anybody who hasn't, some of my family and friends haven't for various reasons and I am supportive of their opinions and reasons why.

Problems with the app:

• Risk of false positives. My phone could be in my coat pocket or locker at work next to a colleagues phone and I may have had no contact with them at all. I could pick up a Bluetooth signal from somebody in an adjoining room that I've not even shared the air they are breathing. Self isolation equals hardship and needs to be used selectively and correctly.
• False sense of security. People thinking the app is keeping them safe, presuming they are Covid free and maybe taking risks about how and who they mix with.
• From my experience the people most at risk of dying of Covid are the ones who don't have smart phones or the knowledge to make use of such an app eg my elderly parents.

Positives of the app:

• Potential for this to be really useful in the future when the technology matures, a big user base will help with refining it and making it better.
• Good for people who don't know everyone they are in contact with due to work / lifestyle and can making the contact tracing easier.
• Can help people feel like they are doing their duty to help in anyway they can, anything that makes people feel positive at times like these can be beneficial.

With the potential news today of a national lockdown and the hardship that will bring and furlough ending today, I like to think everyone just does something to help stop the spread, but I also think we need radically new thinking, it has been 7 months now and we have not got this under control. Around 99% of people survive after getting Covid, 97% who get tested are negative but nearly a million people have lost their jobs.

SpiderLegs

[Deleted User] said:

With the potential news today of a national lockdown and the hardship that will bring and furlough ending today, I like to think everyone just does something to help stop the spread, but I also think we need radically new thinking, it has been 7 months now and we have not got this under control. Around 99% of people survive after getting Covid, 97% who get tested are negative but nearly a million people have lost their jobs.

Stopping the spread means serious long term adjustments to people’s lives that would be unacceptable to most people (even bradders’ new bestie might find it a little uncomfortable). Nothing we have done so far has or will stop the spread. An app is a delaying or management tool just like masks and social distancing.

some radical thinking might be to start a conversation on what is acceptable in terms of death rate vs personal freedoms.

Marvel1

Takmon said:

hb2 said:

bradders1983 said:

I am happy to have neither, thanks all the same.

Me too. I've only recently got my first smartphone (reluctantly, I had been very happy with my old 'dumb phone') and am not about to installing loads of apps onto it.

bradders1983 said:

I am happy to have neither, thanks all the same.

So why will you two not have the Apps? The only way we will be able to control this virus is through a good track and trace system and people like you who resist any attempt at this just means it will continue for longer and longer with the potential for more and more lockdowns.

Maybe could adults could actually listen and social distance, that's the only way.

Thrugelmir

Deleted_User said:

Around 99% of people survive after getting Covid, 97% who get tested are negative but nearly a million people have lost their jobs.

Long Covid poses another set of challenges. 

• One in seven people is ill for at least four weeks
• One in 20 people is ill for at least eight weeks
• One in 45 people is ill for at least 12 weeks

MattMattMattUK

Millions are losing their jobs, millions more have seen their income plumet, people's economic prospects have been set back years or decades.
Mental health is worse than it has ever been, next year we are heading for a mental health crisis, this time also hugely impacting children, with many children having socialisation and anxiety issues.
Education and children's futures have been hugely damaged, GCSE and A Level results from 2020 are largely worthless and the same might be happening to 2020 results as well.
Government debt is now so high that long term spending will have to be cut as well as raising taxes and repayments will take a significant chunk of government expenditure for probably the next century. 
Deaths from other conditions other than Covid are rising rapidly, long term negative health effects from delayed screenings and treatments are expected to dramatically outstrip the direct impact of Covid.

The one dimensional view that many, including it seems the government, hold on Covid, is going to do far more damage, death and long term problems than a virus could ever cause.

hb2

[Deleted User] said:

I like to think times like these bring out the best in people, and generally speaking I have seen supportive and charitable acts from most during this pandemic but reading this thread has shown a darker side of peoples behaviours.

The app is just one of many different things put in place to try to control the pandemic, it clearly won't be the only measure that will help either. As with many other measures to try to stop the pandemic, I've noticed that the more people try to ram opinions down other peoples throats, the stronger the objections are, so trying to argue with those who have made up their mind is futile.

There is no evidence yet that the app is reducing infections, they have increased dramatically since it was released so hard to determine whether it works or not. No evidence either of how many have falsely ended up self isolating and the hard ship that has brought, it really is too early to judge whether it is of any use.

Personally I've downloaded the app and I'm happy to use it, but see myself as a beta tester for something that will be better and more useful in the future. I have nothing against anybody who hasn't, some of my family and friends haven't for various reasons and I am supportive of their opinions and reasons why.

Problems with the app:

• Risk of false positives. My phone could be in my coat pocket or locker at work next to a colleagues phone and I may have had no contact with them at all. I could pick up a Bluetooth signal from somebody in an adjoining room that I've not even shared the air they are breathing. Self isolation equals hardship and needs to be used selectively and correctly.
• False sense of security. People thinking the app is keeping them safe, presuming they are Covid free and maybe taking risks about how and who they mix with.
• From my experience the people most at risk of dying of Covid are the ones who don't have smart phones or the knowledge to make use of such an app eg my elderly parents.

Positives of the app:

• Potential for this to be really useful in the future when the technology matures, a big user base will help with refining it and making it better.
• Good for people who don't know everyone they are in contact with due to work / lifestyle and can making the contact tracing easier.
• Can help people feel like they are doing their duty to help in anyway they can, anything that makes people feel positive at times like these can be beneficial.

With the potential news today of a national lockdown and the hardship that will bring and furlough ending today, I like to think everyone just does something to help stop the spread, but I also think we need radically new thinking, it has been 7 months now and we have not got this under control. Around 99% of people survive after getting Covid, 97% who get tested are negative but nearly a million people have lost their jobs.

Thank you for your balanced and rational view, they seem to be in the minority on this thread!

Yahoo_Mail

Atlas234 said:

Yahoo_Mail said:

Takmon said:

bradders1983 said:

Takmon said:

bradders1983 said:

Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear. Thats a very low blow. Post reported 

If you want to be it ignorant and selfish at a detriment to your own life then carry on I have no problem with that.

But there is no detriment to you by downloading these apps but they will help other people and you blankly refuse to do it for no reason. I'm sure your the kind of person to also ignore social distancing guidelines when you feel like.

All I'm going to say is stop being so ignorant and selfish and think about other people for a change. I've had enough of selfish people requiring lockdown restrictions to get tighter and tighter and ruin everyone's life. 

It's funny how you report my post because a few factual words has upset you but you have no problem in spreading a virus with real consequences that causes some people to die!.

Just have a good think about that.

No, you disagree with my stance so go trawling through my posts to try and muck rake.  Beyond pathetic. Just have a good think about that.

but considering the serious consequences of this virus too normal life

There are no "serious consequences" to normal life as a result of the virus, there are serious consequences to normal life as a result of politicians, who are far more interested in getting re-elected, pandering to people who have forgotten that people die and we're not the masters of nature that we've lead ourselves to believe, putting in absurd restrictions so just so they look like they're doing something.  Even though it won't make a jot of difference in the long run.

If the virus was doing it why are people in Sweden basically living a normal life, and certainly doing no worse than us?  The effects on normal life are entirely man-made.

Sweden is nearly double the size of the UK with a small fraction of the uk's population. So I would say population density would be main difference in a viral pandemic

My post was not referring to infection numbers or anything like that. I was (fairly cleary I though) referring to this nonsense idea that we are being forced, by the virus no less, to go into lockdown, or shut businesses or whatever.  That is patently false.  The virus isn't doing it, people (in this case politicians) are and as Sweden has shown, we can *gasp* just not do it.

[Deleted User]

Thrugelmir said:

Deleted_User said:

Around 99% of people survive after getting Covid, 97% who get tested are negative but nearly a million people have lost their jobs.

Long Covid poses another set of challenges. 

• One in seven people is ill for at least four weeks
• One in 20 people is ill for at least eight weeks
• One in 45 people is ill for at least 12 weeks

That's a very good point and I accept those challenges aren't simple to address but I do wonder whether a enhanced sickness support scheme from the government would be cheaper than the cost of furlough for mass closure of businesses. 

I'm constantly torn by what is right or wrong for Covid. On one hand if deaths are preventable then we should do everything we can to prevent them, on the other hand I look at the long game and devastation to peoples lives through jobs losses and businesses closing.

I might be controversial with this one but approx 80,000 people die through tobacco consumption, 36,000 through air pollution and 8,000 due to alcohol consumption in the UK every year, have we done everything we can to eliminate those deaths? Are they different because people choose to smoke tobacco / drink alcohol / drive a car? Have we ever closed or prohibited any of the contributions to those deaths?

And there are many ways to avoid and minimise the impacts of Covid (other than age) that people can take and my current thoughts are a full on promotion of overall healthy living to defeat this virus. Get fit, get to ideal weight and eat a healthy diet along with all the other precautions and maybe we can live with this virus without leaving people jobless, homeless and skint.

elsien

Sweden had had a recent surge in infections. In Stockholm they’re advising against going to indoor environment. There isn’t the coercion we have here, but the messsge is getting to be the same.