NHS app will miss HALF of coronavirus cases as it only uses 2 symptoms, expert warns

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THE NHS app will miss half of the cases of coronavirus because it only uses two symptoms to follow infections, a top expert has warned. 

Epidemiologist at King’s College London Professor Tim Spector has said the app will “fail” because it ignores some of the more common symptoms of coronavirus – but the Government has ignored his research.

The new NHS app could miss half of the cases of coronavirus

Professor Tim Spector is an epidemiologist with King’s College London

Professor Spector is behind the COVID-19 symptom study app which has studied the data from millions of confirmed and suspected cases of the deadly virus and found there are 14 symptoms of coronavirus – some even more likely than a cough or fever.

He told HOAR: “Like with our app, there will be lots of good citizens who will be happy to (use the NHS contact tracing app)

“But the bar is quite high and my worry is they will miss about half of the cases unless they expand the symptoms.” 

Professor Spector’s has analysed the information given by 3.2 million people who have logged onto the symptom tracker app and said what symptoms they have.

In partnership with the Department for Health, the researchers followed around 10,000 people who had a positive test for coronavirus for two weeks.

He said: “In that group, it was headache, sore throat and muscle pain which were the commonest first symptoms for the first two days.

“Usually fever and cough and loss of smell did not come until day three or four so (the NHS) app will fail because if you only report when you have a fever or a cough that’s not until day three – and you’ve been infecting everyone for the last three days.”

Professor Spector told the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) which is advising the Government on the NHS app about his findings and urged them to change their symptom list.

But his research was ignored.

He said of the Government advice: “They’re dumbing it down because they think everyone is too stupid. I think people can understand it’s a weird disease and when in doubt, say you’re ill and get tested.”

One of the biggest holes in the app will catching coronavirus cases in elderly people, Professor Spector said.

Not only are they the most vulnerable to serious complications, but they also tend to get different symptoms.

He said: “(In elderly people) confusion is one of the major signs and diarrhoea, they can get hypothermia so their temperature actually goes down rather than having a fever.”

“I think (the NHS) are really missing a trick getting people informed because what’s the point if you miss half the cases?

“That’s why care homes are such a disaster, because they were only swabbing people with two ridiculous symptoms.”

The NHS contact tracing app is being trialled in the Isle of Wight this week, and so far has had around 55,000 people download it – even after dozens of people complained it was not compatible with their phones.

But experts have said for a contact tracing app to be viable, it needs between 60-80 per cent take up.

With a population of 140,000 the app has only been downloaded by roughly 40 per cent of residents.

Professor Spector warned that getting people to download the app was only half of the battle – and ensuring people were engaging with it when they were ill would be another massive hurdle for the Government to jump.

Of the 3.2 million people who use his app, around 1.2 million use it regularly.

Many people downloaded it when it was first rolled out in late March, but have since either deleted it or not used it.

He said: “Our experience from 3.2 million people that have downloaded it and entered some data, there were quite a few people who entered data the first time, then don’t go back to it again and would delete it or switch it off.”

UK coronavirus cases