Louisa Merrick-White
In the week ending the 7th July, over half a million people were told to self-isolate by test and trace. In the week ending the 14th July, this figure had increased by 17% to over 618,000. By the week ending 21st July, this figure had jumped again by 70,000. This ‘pingdemic’ has raised questions about the effectiveness of the test and trace app and created concerns that the country’s economic recovery could be hindered by the large numbers of people self-isolating.
How does test and trace work?
Currently, you can expect to be pinged by test and trace if you’re within two metres of someone for 15 minutes who then goes on to test positive. You would then be advised to self-isolate for 10 days. However, there has been increasing feeling that, while these parameters worked when test and trace was first introduced, they have since become outdated.
Economic concerns
With cases and subsequent ‘pings’ rising rapidly over the last few weeks, many are becoming concerned that the road to economic recovery may be hindered by staff shortages as large proportions of the workforce go into self-isolation. Manufacturing, retail and hospitality are amongst the worst affected industries. Head of manufacturing group Make UK, Stephen Phipson, revealed that a number of companies were missing up to 20% of their workforce. Some hospitality businesses have been forced to close entirely due to understaffing, despite many only just getting back to relative normality after lockdown. Most recently, the ‘pingdemic’ has led to shortages of staff at all levels of food production and distribution, leading to concerns of food shortages and panic buying.
Another economic concern is the impact of self-isolation on peoples’ personal finances. There is an increasing awareness that not all employers will provide full pay to staff who are self-isolating. This has led to calls for the government to introduce financial assistance for those who aren’t paid while self-isolating. It’s also increased concerns that many are deleting the app for fear of being asked to self-isolate and the financial impact of losing ten days’ pay.
Criticism of Test and Trace
The ‘pingdemic’ has created a new wave of criticism for test and trace. While the government was initially applauded for how quickly test and trace was developed, it’s been increasingly critiqued since.
Many have questioned how useful the app can be considering it isn’t required by law, can be deleted and the contact tracing can be disabled. As people are also increasingly being reminded, you are not legally obliged to self-isolate if pinged by the app, only if contacted directly by test and trace.
Concerns have also been raised about the sensitivity of the app, with people claiming to have been ‘pinged’ when their neighbours have tested positive, despite not coming into direct contact with them. Perhaps most significantly, with social distancing having been abolished last month, many feel the app is now out of date as it is still basing it’s ‘pings’ on contact within two metres, as per the old social distancing guidelines.
Most recently, the scale of the ‘pingdemic’ has led to calls for the government to provide exemptions from self-isolation for certain key workers and those who are double-jabbed. Over the last couple of weeks, the government has released a list of sectors whose workers will be exempt from self-isolation if ‘pinged’ to try and minimise the impact of the ‘pingdemic’ on key sectors.
To get a better idea of the public’s views on test and trace, we conducted a small survey.
The Data
60% of people surveyed said they use test and trace, compared to 40% who don’t. Of those who use the app, over half said their main reason for doing so was because it was required by hospitality venues and other such public places, and over 40% said they use it for the sake of their personal health and safety. Of those who don’t use the app, over 60% said it was due to worries about not being able to work and 18% cited privacy concerns. When asked if the recent ‘pingdemic’ had made them reconsider using the app, 18% of respondents said they were now considering deleting it, 40% said they might and 43% said they were not considering deleting test and trace. Despite so many continuing to use the app, 75% of those surveyed said the app needed reforming or replacing.
When asked for any additional comments, the accuracy of the app was by far the biggest cause for concern amongst those surveyed. Many said the app needed to be made more accurate to stop people having to self-isolate unnecessarily and prevent the financial and economic impacts of this. A number of people also admitted that they only use the app to check into venues but have contact tracing disabled so they can’t be tracked, with many doing this to avoid losing money by missing work or even lectures. Numerous respondents laid the problems with test and trace, and the pandemic more widely, solely at the government’s door. Some believe the government shouldn’t have opened up indoor places until more people were fully vaccinated and many noted the impact of the lack of financial support available to those forced to self-isolate.
What might change in the future?
In addition to the ever-expanding list of exempt sectors, those who are double-jabbed now no longer have to self-isolate when ‘pinged’. There have been calls for the sensitivity of the app to be reviewed in line with the abolition of social distancing. However, it seems there are no plans to alter the app’s sensitivity just yet, instead test and trace will be kept under “constant review”. Some have also suggested the app should be less arbitrary and factor in, for example, whether people are vaccinated and whether the contact was outdoors or indoors. It was also recently announced that test and trace has been updated so that it now only looks back at contacts two days before someone tests positive, rather than five.
While the test and trace app has clearly been helpful in the UK’s fight against Covid-19, it seems something now needs to change. With the ‘pingdemic’ taking hold, many people not using the app properly and mounting pressure on the government to reform test and trace, it’s undoubtedly only a matter of time until we see some more significant changes.
Featured image courtesy of Neelam via Pixabay. Image license can be found here. No changes were made to this image.
Louisa Merrick-White
I’m a University of Sheffield graduate keen to build a career in writing and journalism. I love writing opinion pieces on culture, society and when I’m feeling brave, politics.