The team behind the Card are making more things public so we are getting more information to respond to. But their messaging still carries factual inaccuracies and logical fallacies that don't compare the options fairly. A couple of points below: https://twitter.com/ChrisKeall/status/1286851911598010368

On NZ COVID Tracer: "Of course, we're now in the relative calm of level 1, but even in the throes of level 4 usage was minimal"

The app wasn't even available in level 4, so yeah usage would have been pretty minimal.

On NZ COVID Tracer: "In it's initial version... there's no way to automatically share your location history with health authorities..."

The functionality was added in Release 2 in June.

Morgan says that the $100mil price tag needs to be seen in context, but compares it to the size of the overall health response and costs of being in lockdown.

How about comparing the cost to another digital contact tracing solution? $100mil buys you a lot of software...

Morgan reckons you need 80% uptake for the card to work (a level we haven't seen anywhere in the world) but then says "whether this stretches to mandating in, say, pubs, is a policy decision above my pay-grade" which is a cop-out when he also criticises apps on uptake rate

A couple of other commentators then point out the pitfalls of trying to make it mandatory, noting challenges around trust and compliance. Morgan says that "there's ample evidence" that the govt can compel people to do things -

- like carrying a driver's license or making everyone stay inside for six weeks. You need a heck of a lot of social license to normalise these things, and people need to understand and believe that it works or they may not comply.

On people forgetting cards or losing them, he notes "We don't need 100 per cent usage 100 per cent of the time for it to achieve the aims" - which is a huge problem in that we don't know what rate of compliance we might get, and no study beyond modelling assumptions has been done

John Edwards points out that the hardware can't be updated once it's released. Morgan says the algos used to crunch the data can be changed on the server, which amounts to changing the thresholds on definitions of risk but that's only a small part of what might need to be updated

And he dismisses the ability to update smartphone apps because "so few install them and they just don't work" which just starts from faulty assumptions and points to human behaviour challenges that would also apply to a card (if voluntary).

He says that Singapore are getting rid of their app in favour of tokens - he and the journos have had plenty of time to fact-check this and would see that Singapore is using wearables to complement the app at the moment to help vulnerable populations, not replace the app.

Lastly, Morgan says that no political party will promote a compulsory card before the election, and that people won't voluntarily use a card until they see "body bags" and "bodies tacked up in refrigerated units". A bit shocking, but the card's too late at that point isn't it?

Sorry all, this is just making me a bit mad because publicity about this solution is just seeding doubt and mistrust in the govt's efforts, and for what? A solution that might work but requires significant behaviour change and capex and restricts our flexibility moving forward?

The card was a nice idea, but we need to know when to just let these things go constructively. The MOH absolutely should take the lessons and ideas that make sense from this plan and incorporate it into their pipeline so we can improve the solution we have now.

For the record, good on Sam Morgan and the rest of the team for developing the idea and letting us consider it. I reject the assertion from some commentators saying they're "just in it for the money" - we're all here to try and make things better, leave the ad hominem out of it.

One more thing - Morgan does point out ethnic disparities in the use of an app and potential inequity. This is a good thing to remember to look out for. MOH has stats on ethnic breakdown for (most) people using the app, so it would be worth asking about.