The new NHS Covid-19 phone app

Today the brand-new NHS Covid-19 app gets launched. I've just installed it, and I have to say that it is a very different animal compared to the version trialled earlier this year, which was ultra-simplistic. This app is far more comprehensive. It's an app well worth delving into - truly a mine of helpful information and links, with statistics to view and and advice to consult. 

It remains only a supplement to the basic public strategies already advocated or required (such as maintaining social distancing, washing hands carefully, and observing local social contact rules), and nobody should rely on it to keep them safe from coronavirus infection. But it would be absurd not to install it on one's phone and use it when meeting people, either by arrangement or casually where people who don't know each other gather - such as on public transport, in shops and cafés, in museums and galleries, or really any place where contact is certain. And to use it for as long as Covid-19 remains a significant threat. 

This said, it needs GPS and Bluetooth to be on at the same time - just like the earlier version - and with the same toll on one's phone battery. It's the GPS radio in particular that really kills battery life. My phone has a large battery, but it's now over three years old, and must last well into 2021. I'm not by any means nursing it along, but to prevent its premature death I'm mindful of not abusing the battery. I use my phone very heavily indeed, every single day, for all kinds of things, many of them needing a good reserve of battery-power. Having GPS and Bluetooth on all the time would be unmanageable. So I am going to use the app on a part-time basis. The app serves no purpose walking about in the middle of a moor, nor on a wide beach, nor when alone in my car, nor when alone in my house or caravan. At those times, I can turn it off. But I will foster the habit of turning it on when mixing with other human beings - not just scummy types who couldn't give a damn, but responsible people too - and certainly whenever I don my face mask. It goes without saying, surely, that if a mask is required the app must be too.  

It's not merely fulfilling a clear social duty. I'm acutely concerned about my own health, as I can't know how I would respond to an infection. I've no serious underlying or chronic health issues, but at age 68 I am borderline 'vulnerable', with reduced resistance to disease, and I might well have a rough time. Maybe a seriously bad time, with ongoing consequences. It makes abundant sense for me to take advantage of any measure that will warn me that I might have got infected. I also owe it to everyone else to put myself on the radar, if I've become a symptomless infection-carrier who might unwittingly pass the virus on. How would I know, unless I install this app? Because as it stands the possibility of taking a test is remote, unless I ever develop definite symptoms. I'd be mortified if, unknowingly, I picked up something and infected the people I most care about. With the app, there's a much better chance that this may not happen.

That said, I do regard myself as a low-risk person. All along, I've been a Very Good Girl, and have been very observant of social distancing, very circumspect about going near any group of people I don't know - especially if they seem to be careless about their behaviour. So I haven't yet got into high-risk situations where infection would be almost inevitable. This circumspection has become habitual. But such care can't shield me from an unplanned or unexpected encounter. There might, for all I know, be a gang of frolicking students - all riddled with virus - just around the corner, the next time I pop into town. Or I could bump into some daytime drunk who wants to kiss every woman he meets, even me. 

But I do have to touch some surfaces, like anyone else. And it crosses my mind, every time I use a supermarket loo, that I can't count on stupid or ignorant people washing their hands. I know some don't. I have sat there in my cubicle and heard them do their stuff, flush the loo, and depart without putting their hands near water and hot air. Touching the door handle that I must pull. Sigh. 

One thing the new app has, that will prove a time-saver, is the ability to scan QR codes when going into eateries and suchlike. That will be cool and slick and avoid staff having to ask for contact details, and needing to write them down. It will also be a pathway to warning other app users that - say - the pub they recently lunched at had a customer who proved infectious. 

Do I worry about my civil liberties being impinged? Not a bit. 'Wartime' measures are obviously justified. A war against a stealthy, invisible enemy who needs victims, and isn't concerned about accidentally killing a host. In the Second World War the public had to carry ID Cards and gas masks. In 2020 we have this phone app. What's the difference?