Two reports appeared late last week. First we have:
Senate committee calls for funding of failed COVIDSafe app to be dropped
From May to November 2020, the COVIDSafe app chipped in 0.1% of all close contact detections in New South Wales.
Written by Campbell Kwan,
on | Topic: Government: AU
Australia's COVIDSafe app, which was initially likened to digital sunscreen by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, has been slammed by the Senate committee tasked with reviewing the federal government's pandemic response.
"By not recognising the app's faults, or seeking to fix the app, the government has continued to oversee an application which is not fit for its intended purpose, has cost millions of dollars, and offered limited public value," the Senate Select Committee on COVID-19 said in its final report.
The entire committee, except for one Coalition member, supported this view.
This finding was made as a study conducted by the committee, which concluded in February, found the use of COVIDSafe in New South Wales between May and November 2020 detected only 17 additional close contacts that had not already been identified through conventional contact tracing methods.
Percentage-wise, the 17 close contacts detected by the COVIDSafe app amounted to 0.1% of all identified close contacts in the state during that period.
The committee added that the federal government has been unwilling to provide an update on how many additional contacts the COVIDSafe app has identified, choosing to instead claim the states and territories are responsible for reporting the number of cases identified.
In response to the ineffectiveness of the COVIDSafe app, the committee has recommended that the federal government cease any future expenditure of public funds on the failed COVIDSafe application.
More here:
Second we have:
Senate inquiry calls for gov to wind up COVIDSafe app
By Justin Hendry on Apr 8, 2022 6:40AM
"Cease any further expenditure".
The federal government should cease all funding from its troubled COVIDSafe contact tracing app, a Labor-led senate committee has found.
The finding is contained in the final report from a senate inquiry into the government’s handling of the pandemic, which has also called for greater data sharing between governments.
The report [pdf], released on Thursday afternoon, said COVIDSafe had been “roundly criticised for its high cost and significant limitations as a practical measure for contact tracing”.
It cites reports the app was not used by state governments during the Delta outbreak last year, and a study showing it detected only 17 contacts not identified through other means in NSW during 2020.
The committee said the government had also failed to provide an update on how many additional contacts had been identified and suggested it was a state government responsibility.
Other concerns raised during the inquiry went to the app’s “reliance on Bluetooth... as an effective proxy for close contacts” and “parameters that fail to account for Covid-19 variants”.
With its limited use since early on in the pandemic, and officials suggesting no update was forthcoming, the committee said the “future use of the COVIDSafe app appears uncertain”.
“By not recognising the app’s faults, or seeking to fix the app, the government has continued to oversee an application which is not fit for its intended purpose, has cost millions of dollars, and offered limited public value,” it said.
The committee has recommended the “government cease any further expenditure of public funds on the failed COVIDSafe application”.
More here:
https://www.itnews.com.au/news/senate-inquiry-calls-for-gov-to-wind-up-covidsafe-app-578473
There is a link to the 199 page Final Report from the Senate Select Committee on COVID-19 here:
https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/COVID-19/COVID19
It is important to note that this report covers all aspects of the Pandemic – apparently believing that there is nothing more to be said – “very courageous” in the Sir Humphrey sense!
Given there is an election happening in six weeks we also need to recognise this is a very political report strongly suggesting that the Government has done very badly on COVID19 pandemic overall!
The recommendation
that matters for readers here is this:
Recommendation 14
4.113 The committee recommends that the Australian Government cease any further
expenditure of public funds on the failed COVIDSafe application
The other recommendations go very wide from things like an Australian Centre of Disease Control to bi-annual review of pandemic preparadness!
The bottom line in the report on COVIDSafe is that it basically did not work and was not fixed, and should now be scrapped.
What a shambles with all the failure points of Government IT on full display! It is really hard to understand just why it was so hard to organise an app that did work within a week or two of having the need – rather that just remaining unfixed for month after month and now being scrapped! Why on earth was this do you reckon?
David.
A lot of people left embarrassed by this, lots claimed it was next to godliness - you won’t hear much David only crickets. They are off championing the next waste of time.
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