I think this is a big part of the answer. My own personal perception of the risk of infection has dropped significantly since we went into lockdown. With the infections being so tightly...
The other factor, he said, was that lower case numbers meant people felt less at risk of infection and less interested in downloading the app.
“People’s perception of risk is definitely dropping,” he said.
I think this is a big part of the answer.
My own personal perception of the risk of infection has dropped significantly since we went into lockdown. With the infections being so tightly controlled, we didn't have the runaway epidemic that was forecast. We're down to only about 500 active infections across the country (probably less, as I suspect NSW isn't recording all recoveries in their data) - and many of those are locked in quarantine or self-isolation. The chance of me running into a infected person out in public is very low.
In that context, it's hard to make the case for downloading an app to trace our contacts. It was easier to make the case when the virus was spreading, but not so much now.
I still have the app installed, just in case, but I doubt it will ever be needed.
And maybe a lot of Australians feel the same way.
And then there's the idiots who think it's a hoax, or people who object on privacy grounds, and whatever other reasons (my 75-year-old father tried to install COVIDsafe on his phone, but his phone has an old version of Android that isn't supported by the app, and he can't update the operating system because the phone manufacturer no longer supports that model).
[...] nearly a month since launch, the contact tracing app has barely been used – just one person has been reported to have been identified using data from it.
[...]
[The Australian Government] set a target of 40% of the Australian population using the app for it to be effective. While close to six million Australians now have the app, the number of new downloads has declined in the past few weeks.
No actual number was tied to the 40% figure, but based on estimations of the number of Australians with smartphones, it is now about 1.5m under that target.
[...]
Prof Simon Dennis, director of the complex human data hub in the Melbourne school of psychological sciences, said the drop was probably influenced by the public debate over the app in April.
The other factor, he said, was that lower case numbers meant people felt less at risk of infection and less interested in downloading the app.
[...]
Where the app has faltered has been in transparency. Developers have reported difficulty communicating with the Digital Transformation Agency about problems.
Early on developers noted the iPhone version would not be able to exchange Bluetooth handshakes with other devices unless it was running on the screen – incredibly impractical for users.
The government initially denied this, refused to answer questions about it, and only once, before the Covid-19 senate committee, did the agencys chief executive, Randall Brugeaud, admit the Bluetooth function suffered when the app wasn’t on screen.
[...]
That, in part, has been addressed by updates quietly released in the past week, but issues still persist, and will never truly be resolved unless the federal government implements functions released by Apple and Google this week.
They move the Bluetooth beacon process to the operating system layer where it is easier to coordinate with other apps. Until then, the iPhone version will not function as effectively as the Android version.
I think this is a big part of the answer.
My own personal perception of the risk of infection has dropped significantly since we went into lockdown. With the infections being so tightly controlled, we didn't have the runaway epidemic that was forecast. We're down to only about 500 active infections across the country (probably less, as I suspect NSW isn't recording all recoveries in their data) - and many of those are locked in quarantine or self-isolation. The chance of me running into a infected person out in public is very low.
In that context, it's hard to make the case for downloading an app to trace our contacts. It was easier to make the case when the virus was spreading, but not so much now.
I still have the app installed, just in case, but I doubt it will ever be needed.
And maybe a lot of Australians feel the same way.
And then there's the idiots who think it's a hoax, or people who object on privacy grounds, and whatever other reasons (my 75-year-old father tried to install COVIDsafe on his phone, but his phone has an old version of Android that isn't supported by the app, and he can't update the operating system because the phone manufacturer no longer supports that model).
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