TESTING & TRACING - MOST COUNTRIES FAILED. WHAT ARE THE EXCEPTIONS?

 Filenews 14 October 2020

"Marginal impacts" have so far been on Britain's testing and tracing programme, which cost £12bn a year. according to a recent assessment by the Government's Scientific Committee of Advisers (Sage).

The fact raises questions about the conditions for judging the effectiveness of such programmes, which for other countries have been the most important weapon in the fight against the pandemic.

Privacy, reactions and difficulties

Since the programmes came to the heart of the global debate, since the beginning of the pandemic, they have been marked by concerns about privacy, particularly in the cases of states using mobile phone apps for this purpose. Moreover, in many cases they have encountered resistance from citizens, who either refuse to install the above-mentioned applications or do not comply with the self-isolation directives.

In a number of cases they have also faced practical difficulties, such as the capabilities of the system in question. In the case of Britain, citizens have been forced to wait a long time for their results - or even the test itself - to undermine the usefulness of the programme.

Several European countries have experienced similar problems, at a time when daily cases are increasing rapidly on the old continent.

A comparison published by the Lancet showed that despite state proclamations and headlines about huge test numbers per day, "countries and their regions have diversified in their ability to implement effective systems of finding, testing, tracing, isolation and support."

South Korea

It has generally been assumed that South Korea's test and tracing system is a model. It is worth noting, however, that the country's efforts were strengthened by emergency legislation that allowed it to bypass any concerns about citizens' privacy.

Within days of the first case occurring in February, the country was preparing for extensive tests, even on asymptomatic individuals. The contact tracking system combined patient interviews with GPS data from mobile phones and bank card transactions to determine where they had been found and who they had met.

Moreover, South Korea has been much stricter towards those returning from abroad. In this respect, it presents a similar picture to Hong Kong, which last month introduced a free test program for anyone with a resident ID.

Germany

The solution, however, is not always hidden in systems that violate citizens' privacy. Germany, which places great importance on the protection of personal data, has also done much better than Britain in terms of the testing and tracing system.

Although the tracking application, which is based on Bluetooth technology, has since June "come down" to mobile phones of only 20% of the population (iceland's corresponding application, for example, was installed on 40% of mobile phones), its presence only acted as a reinforcement of a series of directly and well-designed measures, characterising the German approach.

Unlike Britain, which has attempted to build a new centralised system, the regions of Germany and even the local laboratories operated with a degree of autonomy.

Perhaps we should not be surprised, says the Lancet, that the countries that have done well are those that have governments that enjoy the confidence of the population, and where public health messages have been consistent and clear.

"With few exceptions, such as Germany, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland and South Korea, political leaders have found it difficult to secure the public's trust and support for measures that continue to change their daily lives," the article concludes.

Source: news.in.gr