This is where I draw the line.
I’ve been complying with everything the Government has asked us to do to slow down COVID-19. And no, I don’t sympathise with the crazies in the US.
I’ve done everything, from avoiding panic shopping to coughing/sneezing into the crook of my elbow to washing my hands endlessly. It was easy to comply with that.
We were also asked to be respectful and grateful to those essential workers keeping this place alive. We were to cooperate with health and emergency workers, teachers and child-care workers, shop-attendants, delivery guys. I did that, but I would have done it even if I were told otherwise. As is always the case, it is the working class who are called to save our collective ass (you, middle class liberal/leftish intellectual, remember that before you have your next childish tantrum).
“Social distancing” was much, much harder. But I’m doing that. I only go out to work, to buy groceries, for a little walk and that’s it. I’ve even cut down my visits to the supermarket. And I do my best to avoid faux pas.
I’m careful no to touch things needlessly. I clean often-touched surfaces every single day. I do my best to keep up to date with the ever changing regulations and advisories. I try to follow the avalanche of news, from legitimate sources, but I scrupulously avoid commenting, as I’m utterly unqualified (readers, I trust, may have noticed).
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But I’m not downloading that bloody COVID-19 app the Morrison Government came up with. I’m putting my foot down.
Why not?
In part, because I don’t trust any capitalist government and much less the Morrison Government. I don’t trust federal Minister for Government Services Stuart Robert. I have no reason to believe his word that there’s nothing sinister in that app. But even if I were to take his word, I don’t trust his competence. Not after the robodebt racket or the DDoS attack to Centrelink that never was.
Commentators have remarked on the public lack of trust, and there’s something to that, considering that even COALition MPs refuse to download that app.
But that’s not the whole story.
The app is meant to automatise the contact tracing of COVID-19 patients, yes? It’s a version of the Singaporean original, supposedly behind Singapore’s success in controlling COVID-19. Its use will allow the Government to lift restrictions.
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| (Source: ABC News. Right-click to see a larger image.) |
Well, contact tracing is becoming easier, not harder, now that the number of new cases of COVID-19 infections is falling. If the idea was to save the manual work involved in contact tracing the moment to launch the app was weeks ago, not now.
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| (Source: ABC News. Right-click to see a larger image.) |
The vaunted example of Singapore looks less and less like something to imitate, not to mention that the app there doesn’t seem to be doing what it’s expected to do here. Indeed, maybe they should try doing there, what we’ve been doing here. Begin by ditching the app.
And what are the restrictions they offer in exchange?
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Now, you want to download the app? Fine. Good luck. But remember what they say: fool me once, shame on you … If I were a journo or an opposition politician or a climate change activist or a union leader I know what I would do.
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Update:
26/04/2020. Speaking of which.
As I write, Greg Hunt, the federal Minister for Health, is announcing the official launching of the app, warrantying it poses no privacy risks.
Medical authorities, headed by Brendan Murphy, the Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer, endorse Hunt.
It's reasonable to believe Murphy, Coatsworth and all their colleagues are acting in good faith. Moreover, they are experts and in our circumstances it is sensible to trust their advise.
Their expertise, however, is limited to health, not to informatics. It’s part of a cop’s job to be tricky. You have been warned.
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