Thread by @firefoxx66

The underlying problem isn't that the UK COVID-19 app is 'too sensitive.'

With a quarter-million cases & few restrictions, even if only correct contacts were pinged, that would be a huge number of alerts & isolations!

And yes - that's going to cause a lot of disruption 🤷🏻‍♀️

1/5

We're papering over the consequences of huge case numbers with debates around sensitivity.

Yes, we can turn sensitivity down - but # of alerts will continue to grow with cases - still potentially annoying people (who uninstall) & certainly continuing to cause disruption.

2/5

This isn't to say we shouldn't try to make pings more accurate, rather, that this isn't an actual solution to high number of pings right now.

Even if 30% pings were bad & we could get perfection now, UK cases rose 33% this week - so we are still at crazy high notifications.

3/5

Yes, there are legitimate debates to be had around who should isolate at all if the govt "strategy" is not to actively limit transmissions - but even with a fairly strict isolation definition, *with large case numbers will come large numbers of isolations & further cases.*

4/5

The higher the number of cases 📈
The harder it is to bring them down 😰
The greater increase in health risk 🏥
The more disruption from those isolating & ill 🤒
The more financial hardship follows 💸
The more confidence & ability to resume normal activities stalls🙅🏻🛍️🍲

5/5