Letters: We should download COVID-19 tracking app

Our readers have their say on the COVIDSafe tracking app, the easing of restrictions and the chance to build a better Australia.

The government’s coronavirus (COVID-19) tracking app COVIDSafe is now available. Photo Illustration: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

TO EVERYONE who has concerns about downloading the COVIDSafe app, please reconsider.

I would like to know what makes you think that you are so important or unique enough to make the government want to know your every move.

I would be very confident that they couldn’t care less what you are doing or where you are, with the exception being if you have been in contact with someone infected with the virus.

Do you really think that in a country with a population of around 25 million you are the one person the government wants to trace?

If you have a mobile phone you can be traced very easily. Google knows where you have been and when and has copies of all the photos you have taken including their locations.

If you have unknowingly been in contact with someone with the virus I would like to know so I can be tested if I have been to close to you as it could mean my life.

This is a very trying time for everyone and the authorities are trying their best to keep us safe.

Please don’t be paranoid about this. Hopefully this app can help keep us safe from contracting a possibly deadly disease and maybe save your life as well as mine.

Please download the app, it is not going to hurt you, not downloading it may.

Gary Welsh, Sunrise Beach

Readers support the COVIDSafe tracking app. Photo Illustration: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

I WILL download and activate the COVIDSafe tracking app, possibly against my better judgment, but I believe we should be doing as much as possible to combat this virus.

I believe the government has the right intentions with the implementation of this app and as I’m not intending to do anything illegal I have nothing to fear if they do track me, even though they have declared they won’t.

I do have concerns regarding the storage and privacy of my personal data in general. I frequently receive unsolicited calls from scammers, marketing organisations and political parties and they have all gained access to my details somehow.

It is common to read about leaks of sensitive government information, usually for political purposes, so it is reasonable to assume that some people who have access to this information can’t be trusted.

We recently saw a case where a government employee distributed pirated copies of Malcolm Turnbull’s book before its release, so if information like that is stolen then surely valuable personal details are much more attractive to unscrupulous people. In different times such activities were seen as acts of treason with severe penalties.

The government needs to take note of the widespread distrust of their security of personal information and take some action to resolve it. If people were more trusting of the security and use of their details then we wouldn’t see such widespread reluctance to download this app and the government would be able to implement a much more effective tracking tool.

Don Cureton, Mansfield

RESTRICTIONS EASING

FROM what I have read regarding the easing of restrictions, there doesn’t seem too be a whole lot changing.

The only difference I see is regarding car trips although that has been limited to 50km. We are told that we can now go for a drive to the beach. I’m sure that there are many people who would love to do that but live in areas where that is now not possible.

Shopping for clothes is an non event. I didn’t know it was on the not-to-do list, nor obviously did any of the dress and shoe shops in my area which have remained open the whole time.

Fish and chips is a takeaway so nothing changes there.

Picnics nearly makes a change, good for families, nothing different for anyone else.

I can invite two people into my home but we can’t be trusted to go and buy fish and chips and eat them at the park.

I just wish the government would put a bit more thought into what they are going to do. It’s not as if they haven’t enough time to get it right.

Gordon Black, Caloundra

WITH the very welcome easing of some of the lockdown restrictions, can some serious thought please be given to the re-opening of public pools?

While swimming, for many, is just a simple pastime, there remains a significant number of people for whom it is a necessary therapy.

I am only one person among many who depends upon regular swimming for health reasons. My chronic lower back condition has become significantly worse since the closure of all public pools, since there are certain essential exercises which can be done only in the water. Surely swimming is both less invasive and less expensive than back surgery?

If “leisure shopping” is now relatively safe, then why not pools, which are far less crowded than shopping centres? This is a health issue, not just a social one.

Juliet Hoey, Enoggera

I HOPE that people don’t go stupid on Saturday and congregate en masse in parks, shopping centres and highways, but I can almost predict some kind of conflict.

Beaches will be crowded, 50km will be “variable”, picnics will be family gatherings and it will be like opening the doors at a Myer sale.

I hope that the limited freedom is not taken from us too soon through non-compliance and lack of common sense. COVID-19 is still lurking among us.

Peter Corran, Wakerley

OPPORTUNITY TO CHANGE

I THOROUGHLY agree with Peter Gleeson, (C-M, Apr 27) about the potential awaiting this country post virus.

What needs to be addressed is the amount of government we endure which in turn creates all of this red tape and green tape which justifies big government and prevents development, respectively.

Unfortunately prosperity leads to more government and no form of government is productive. Simply look at Queensland.

Paul Mc Ellister, Bongaree

PETER Gleeson (C-M, Apr 27) is timely in his call for a new political and economic paradigm as a consequence of the radical changes in Australia’s economy and society as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Only now, when a lack of resources to fight the pandemic has led to shortages of critical items such as a simple face mask, have we finally come to realise our over dependence on other countries for our needs.

Our laissez-faire attitude to life has finally revealed our deficiencies.

Extremists in Australia are adept at manufacturing crises to point the finger at others but our national failings are all our own.

So through adversity has been presented an opportunity to reinvent and invigorate Australian society and our economy.

Australians are good hard working people and the recent outpourings of support for the less fortunate in our community together with the magnificent national response to Anzac Day indicates a change in our national Zeitgeist.

Gleeson is correct to identify that the time is ripe for change and the Morrison Government should take the opportunity presented to make a worthwhile change for the better.

As for the public, we can all help by adding the price of a cup of coffee to our shopping bill to buy Australian products over imported products at the supermarket.

Geoff Roberts, Brendale

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE

I TRIED to make an appointment with my GP for a disinfectant injection. After he stopped laughing, he suggested I consider making an appointment with the mental health unit at RBWH instead.

“But”, I said, “Donald Trump said it was worth trying.”

He suggested they’d probably keep a bed available for Donald too!

Can you believe that? Fancy a humble GP suggesting he might know more about health issues than the elected President of the United States.

What is the world coming to?

Bob Hunter, Ashgrove