The recent attempt of the British government to develop an NHS track and trace app, attempting to parallel the seeming success stories that have come out of other countries throughout the COVID-19 crisis, has engendered significant ridicule after it transpired that it was almost totally unfit for use in a pandemic. Plagued by various problems of non-functionality, it has been scrapped in favour of an app developed alongside it by Apple and Google, but even this has proven to be problematic. It has been alleged by british health secretary Matt Hancock, that the companies are refusing to give in to reasonable demands from the government.
This ignominious failure, the details of which can be found anywhere on the internet with very little difficulty, has largely gone under the radar as far as actual change in opinion over the government response goes, however, and this may be due to Matt Hancock’s public relations skills and has therefore been able to play it off somewhat. Nevertheless, and although this is by no means to suggest that the government could not have done anything at all better, it remains useful to remember that there is no such thing as a perfect response to a pandemic such as this.
Written by Oliver Haythorne
Media by Ben Hyland
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