Why can’t the ‘NHS’ Covid-19 contact tracing app register NHS test results?
I think we all know the answer to that: it isn’t an NHS app after all.
After This Site was criticised – quite harshly by some – for connecting the ‘NHS’ Covid-19 contact tracing app with Serco and suggesting that it is a data harvesting tool for private contractor Serco, and had to publish a story yesterday (September 25) providing the information on the government’s press release…
It seems I may have been right in the first place after all.
Concerns have been raised after a user discovered he could not enter details of a test he undertook that was processed at an NHS/Public Health England laboratory. It seems the app can only take details of Serco tests:
Hi Damian,
If your test took place in a Public Health England lab or NHS hospital, or as part of national surveillance testing conducted by the Office for National Statistics, test results cannot currently be linked with the app whether they’re positive or negative.
Thanks.
— NHS COVID-19 app (@NHSCOVID19app) September 25, 2020
We in the general public aren’t stupid. We asked questions and we drew conclusions:
Hold on one second.. if you can’t input test results in the app, then what exactly can the app do? Because it certainly can’t tell you if you’ve been near anyone who has tested +ve, which is the only thing it’s supposed to do…
— George Murphy (@GeeeMurph) September 25, 2020
But if you can’t enter a positive result isn’t that pointless? You should rename your Twitter handle as the app is clearly nothing to do with the NHS
— PWD77 (@PWD771) September 26, 2020
Wait…
So this “NHS” app cannot recognise genuine NHS tests…
…only the Serco ones? https://t.co/rVzLXoSCzT
— Mike Galsworthy (@mikegalsworthy) September 26, 2020
https://twitter.com/LeshieLoves/status/1309764368356302849
It doesn’t get more Tory than this. @MattHancock’s “World-beating” “NHS” app doesn’t recognise tests carried out by the NHS or PHE – only those by private outsourced companies like Serco. https://t.co/zlUJCmUI73
— Bath Labour Party (@BathLabour) September 26, 2020
Just to highlight the sheer insanity of this:
The govt’s “NHS” Covid app only wants to know about Serco/private testing.
If you had a test in an NHS or PHE lab, you literally cannot enter the result on the app.@MattHancock how can you possibly justify this? pic.twitter.com/Is4g1PHhcO
— Dr Rachel Clarke (@doctor_oxford) September 26, 2020
Today we hear govt’s “NHS” Covid app only wants to know about Serco/private testing
If you had a test in an NHS or PHE lab you can’t enter result
We must stop calling this NHS test & trace. Its a largely outsourced service which sees a number of private companies paid £billions https://t.co/VZgXp12T8M
— Peter Stefanovic (@PeterStefanovi2) September 26, 2020
@mrjamesob So if you have a test by NHS staff in an NHS hospital and yet it won't be linked to the App HOW DARE they call the app the "NHS Covid19 App". It is clearly run by a private firm for profit, procured by the UK Govt, funded by the UK taxpayer. NOT run by the NHS at all.
— Jezzzzzzz Sq (@jezsquires) September 26, 2020
It isn't an 'NHS app' at all, is it, @NHSCOVID19app. Do you think the fact that you're prepared to lie *even about your own name* might be creating an atmosphere of fraud and deceit around you?
— simon maginn (@simonmaginn) September 26, 2020
The BBC got the story wrong; the headline mentions nothing about the failure to accommodate NHS/PHE results…
https://twitter.com/zsk/status/1309792342321360897
… but it did tell us about a few other cock-ups:
- People who test negative can’t share the result with the app if the test wasn’t booked through the app.
- People who enter their symptoms but not a test result find the app puts them onto a self-isolation countdown anyway.
- They cannot stop the countdown, even if they enter a negative test result later.
And it does mention the main issue – but buried low in the story, possibly in the hope that the mass of the general public (70 per cent of the UK public gets its news from the BBC, apparently) will not notice and will carry on along its brainwashed way.
The Department for Health and Social Care has said the app will be updated (although it hasn’t said that these problems will be resolved).
This Site ran a Twitter survey when the app was launched, asking if it would be withdrawn by the weekend. There was a low take-up but the result was decisive:
The new Covid-19 contact tracing app is up and running, we're told.
Do you think it will be scrapped before the end of the week? #PoliticsLive
— Mike Sivier (@MidWalesMike) September 24, 2020
It isn’t being withdrawn but it seems clear that it should be.
The DHSC is still claiming – somewhat desperately – that “by downloading the app you are helping protect yourself and others”. But it seems clear that the app’s real purpose is entirely different:
Calm down everyone
You’re reacting as if the app was designed to curb the spread of Covid, instead of its primary purpose to harvest mass data and siphon money off to Serco
— Marina Purkiss (@MarinaPurkiss) September 26, 2020
This is what we’re finding. And as long as the government keeps lying to us about what it is doing, it is also sapping away public trust in anything Boris Johnson, Matt Hancock and the other crooks are doing.
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
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This go some way to explain why Laboratory capacity is limited, NHS and University lab results cannot be retained by private companies, so are not used.
Private companies keeping the “data” in-house and actually owning all the results so that they can build up a lucrative super commercial private biometric profile database.
In these circumstances, NHS results will not be allowed to be retained for private use so are ignored and/or discarded.
Dangle the carrot of access to a Private Comprehensive UK Biometric Database including DNA (the Holy Grail), no wonder the USA companies like Apple and Google got on board.