Drop the Pilot?

The UK Government has confirmed that the 'NHS' contact tracing app, trialled on the Isle of Wight (and initially promised for 'May'), is being abandoned (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/18/uk-poised-to-abandon-coronavirus-app-in-favour-of-apple-and-google-models). All such apps rely on bluetooth technology that allows mobiles to recognise nearby machines. The UK attempted to develop its own app in spite of the fact that both Apple and Google had already developed versions (used successfully in some Asian countries to trace contacts of people who later tested positive for a Covid-19 infection). Rejection of the Apple and Google apps appears to have been primarily because of concerns about privacy (central holding of information). The government reportedly intends to approach Apple and Google to see if their apps can be tweaked. If this is not the case (and even, to a certain extent, if it were), we shall have to rely on the 'army' of folk recently recruited to telephone Covid-19 sufferers to ask them about their contacts. There are a myriad of reasons why this type of tracing is likely to be imperfect. Testing and tracing in the UK is taking a long time to get up and running.