Yes it's a hellsite, but here's why I love Twitter. Someone I've never met gets in touch to say his son has tested positive, but even though his whole family has the app, none of them have got a proximity warning. Twenty minutes later we're conducting a joint experiment
We're giving it half an hour. I'll let you know how it goes
It's now been 40 minutes and there's no alert. BUT... I forgot that the notifications aren't instant. They're sent out two-hourly to phones

Sorry if you were waiting for the result. It will be along as soon as I get it
The results are in! No notifications sent to any of these phones. No idea why not either
But it's not about the destination, it's about the journey

Here's what I learnt while investigating, with the help of the brilliant @Freedom20T and his jailbroken iPhone
The diagnosis keys files (aka the lists of people who need alerting) are generated every two hours. So even if you've definitely been near someone who's tested positive, you won't get a notification immediately

(That's why we needed to wait longer than I thought last night)
BUT the file with the keys isn't sent out to phones on the same two-hourly timetable

Eg: the 16:00 file was created at 15:50, but not downloaded till 17:09. The 22:00 file wasn't downloaded till 22:50
I've no idea whether this is significant, but it's interesting to me, so perhaps someone else will find it useful

In the meantime, the mystery of the missing notification goes on...
Curiouser and curiouser. A Danish publication has reported on a bug in the Google/Apple system which meant that household contacts weren't getting notified (ht @moltke)

This sounds very familiar...
dr.dk/nyheder/viden/…
Another theory: the "index case" (he's fine by the way, I wouldn't be doing this if he wasn't) tested positive last week, so wasn't counted as infectious by the API

Of course that doesn't mean the original question isn't good, but it would undermine the results of our test...
Putting this here in case anyone scrolls down the thread
Also - when we were looking into this @SkyNewsValerie asked a friend whose partner had tested positive

She got her notification on the app almost as soon as the result came in, then immediately isolated. Whereas T&T didn't get in touch for a few days

A win for the app there

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More from @rowlsmanthorpe

16 Oct
Real issue with the contact tracing app in England and Wales. Dozens of people are reporting incorrect changes to the risk level in their area

I am investigating, but I believe this is an error caused during an attempt to change the risk level feature

Some examples of people reporting this error

1. Two phones in the same place showing different alert levels
2. High risk areas being classed as medium
Read 4 tweets
9 Oct
NEW: The contact tracing app has been running for two weeks. The Saturday after it was launched it recorded 1.5m check-ins

So how many alerts has it sent about outbreaks in pubs and restaurants?

One. Just one
news.sky.com/story/coronavi…
MPs in the north of England are being told that pubs and bars are driving outbreaks. Mass closures are expected in parts of the country. Isn't this the the venue check-in system on the app is for?

I asked @ChiOnwurah for her reaction
news.sky.com/story/coronavi… Image
More on this. The contact tracing app has two main systems

📳 Bluetooth proximity detection
📳 QR check-ins to venues

Ministers were so committed to QR check-ins they made it ILLEGAL for pubs, bars and restaurants in England* not to display an official QR poster

*not Wales
Read 11 tweets
6 Oct
This is a huge story. One source tells me that Roche supplies 1 in 5 labs in the UK. The implications of shortages are terrifying
news.sky.com/story/thousand…
The focus will be on coronavirus, but this goes far far beyond that. Roche supplies everything from cancer tests to home monitoring systems for patients with heart conditions

At a moment when the NHS is under intense pressure, this will only intensify it
What's the issue? Roche is building new automated warehouse to increase capacity ahead of Brexit

The new warehouse isn’t working, but they haven’t got a backup warehouse - and most labs don't hold their own stock. It's a just-in-time nightmare
Read 6 tweets
6 Oct
The final part of the PM's speech, where he cast forward to 2023, was fascinating. Digital IDs, electric vehicles, super-fast broadband... to enable a life of family and quiet local living

A vision of techno-Conservatism?
Found the bit. He painted a vision of technological transformation, then said it would allow young people in their 20s and 30s to "bring up children in the neighbourhoods where they grew up themselves...
"...and instead of being dragged on big commutes to the city they can start a business in their home town"

This will - I imagine - be appealing to many. But can the UK pivot away from its model in the teeth of a pandemic? And what does this mean for struggling city centres?
Read 5 tweets
4 Oct
NEW: Public Health England has found 15,841 positive cases that weren't registered on its data system

As a result, 22,961 have been reported today for England

The graph of cases now looks like this 📈
What on earth happened? We still don't know. But *something* went wrong with the computer system on 24 September

This chart showing the build-up of missing cases was sent out to directors of public health in the north-west earlier today
The note sent to directors of public health explains what this means in practical terms.

They've been told:

1. This issue does not affect anyone's results. Everyone who tested positive was informed "in the normal way" and asked to self-isolate
Read 7 tweets
2 Oct
The Northumbria University outbreak gives a fresh perspective to the SAGE minutes from 1 September, which were released today

SAGE identified numerous risks with opening colleges and universities, warning that it "has the potential to drive outbreaks"

You don't say
The SAGE minutes pose the question every student must be asking: now they're at uni, how will they ever leave?

SAGE says the risks of national transmission from universities will peak when students go home for Christmas - and that managing it will need “national oversight”
Read 4 tweets

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