paulry

If only hand sanitiser and masks were available to buy!

The mask has several benefits:
1. Reduces disbursement of the virus that can infect others through coughs, sneezes, spittle, etc;
2. Reduces intake of the virus from those infected through coughs, sneezes, spittle, etc;
3. Visibility of these these things on others serves as a constant reminder to maintain social distancing.

Hand sanitiser:the more it can be made available both as personal bottles of the stuff as well as at public access points, the better. It's not the stuff of the nanny state, it's simple measures to assist with protecting people from the spread of the virus and can be reasonably seen as a function of the public health service - it's one of the things we pay taxes for.

Something which to me seems completely pointless though is the use of rubber gloves by the general public.

Otherwise, Polly: long time no chat. I hope things are going well for you.

Amazulu

I'm seeing hand sanitiser available in many places now. Still no masks though

paulry

Cool. There wasn't any here last weekend when I looked, just several people hovering around empty shelves for that product group. A friend of mine who works at one of the local schools was saying that they're unofficially allowing the kids to top up their personal bottles from the larger dispensers placed around the school - which is good.

Come to think of it, I did see some for sale last weekend: $23 for 450ml at the local greengrocers.

Beoz

Any less than 15 mins will over run the contact tracers with too much data to trace.

Yes it doesn't track surfaces you touch. Normal hygiene procedures still in play. Don't lick your fingers until you've had a wash.

Does it matter if Global Switch or AWS have your phone number and which other phone numbers you've been near for 15 minutes or more. Really does it matter???? No of course not.

If it saves 1 life, it's done it's job for the couple of minutes you took to install.

paulry

It could but if they have all the data they can decide who they need to contact in descending order of exposure. It would be interesting to see what the source code looks like to see how it actually operates. What I mean is would 15 separate instances of one minute contact equal the 15 minutes needed to telephone them? I'm sure it's better than nothing but by the sounds of things it could be smarter and more useful.

As for the CCP owned Global Switch: I reckon the Chinese government probably has all our telephone numbers already....

Amazulu

Amazon have some for a bit less than that:
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0768HQZYX

the troubadour

Best equip yourself with the facts firstly before judging others. You are free of course to follow the authoritarian course just as I am to oppose or at best wait and see. But taking Singapore as an example it was found that tracing technology was somewhat over promising in just what the technique could offer. Old fashioned public health work still shouldered much of the burden there in tracing people that might have been exposed to the virus.

the troubadour

Which bids the question why enroll in down loading the app in the first place when aware of the pointless nature of doing so?

moneypenny20

My nearest Woolies had a delivery of their regular brands yesterday, normal price. It's coming back. Now if I could just get the disinfectant I need for work I'll be happy.

Beoz

Singaporeans didn't adopt the technology and look what happen. Bad example.

Health care workers shouldered the burden of tracing? Yes if it's anything like Australia health workers, those who work for health departments do the tracing. So? Why wouldn't you assist them in that effort? Me me me.

Beoz

Some guy in Senegal has my number. He keeps calling, and hangs up when I answer. I think he wants me to call back at a premium rate.

Bo-Jangles

I know that here in NZ are expecting to roll out something similar in the next couple of weeks; I see the value in it primarily being means to record who I have been around for the said 15 minutes or more - if I did get CV-19 then sure I would like to help the tracing people to find out who I had been in contact with as quickly as possible

I likely would remember all the people who have been in my face for 15 times a day for a minute at a time each, but less likely to remember all the people I had work meetings with and such like. Meetings would be reasonably easy to piece together from my Outlook calendar but other interactions like times and date we went to a gym or an exercise class (when we're able) might be harder to remember.

If I can save someone the effort of trying to figure out where I have been and can help break just one chain of spread it would be worthwhile, and I would at least like to be able try to speed up that process for the sake of others.

the troubadour

As I wrote. The technology was found wanting. (meaning it did not live up to promise)Even with the conservative nature of many Aussies,. if Singaporeans cannot be convinced, a state well versed in authoritarian control over the decades , not a lot of hope for others to be coerced.
A lot of skepticism in certain European countries as well, especially those that have lived under a authoritarian past.

Beoz

What was it found wanting for? What was the promise?

Sounds like the paranoia is clouding what you are expecting it to do. It's not supposed to kill the virus. It's designed to help contact tracing.

Singaporeans only do what they are forced to do. Singapore never forced the app.

paulry

I s'pose because on balance I think it's harmless enough, but I reckon if I got the virus I would tell the people wanting to access details of people who fit into the narrow range of the parameters the app scans for, to also listen up on all the other people who have come into close contact with me but which the app most likely filtered out/didn't detect.