“Have you downloaded it yet?” Is a question that you will undoubtedly have already heard. The questioner is most likely referring to the Central Government’s CoronaMelder-App. An app with many supporters, but also many opponents.
The app on your phone keeps track of whether you have been near someone who has been infected with corona. If you’ve been around someone who has tested positive for longer, you’ll be notified. An ingenious piece of technology that can prevent further spread of the virus, but also an app that has met a lot of resistance.
–
We asked visitors to the weekly market in Vlijmen: “Have you downloaded it yet?” Just a sample, not representative and certainly not scientific.
–
Without exception, everyone knew immediately what it was about. “You mean the app, or not young?“, 80-year-old Johan says. He immediately says that he has not downloaded it.” I don’t have a computer and my wife has a phone, but no app. “
–
Everyone on the market in Vlijmen has an opinion about the CoronaMelder app, nuanced opinions and sometimes also provocative points of view. “I’m not interested in the app,” says Sander. “If we get it, we get it right?”
–
Visitors to the weekly market in Vlijmen about the CoronaMelder app:
–
Some 10,000 times a day in the Netherlands someone receives a notification from the CoronaMelder app, reported the NOS today. It was an estimate by Ron Roozendaal of the Ministry of Health, who is in charge of the app.
–
Those 10,000 people were not all within a meter and a half of someone who was infected, Roozendaal admits. “In the vast majority of cases, the app recognizes the distance correctly, but in a small number of cases you were further away.”
–
The fact that the CoronaMelder app does not work properly is perhaps grist to the mill for the non-downloaders, who all have different reasons for not downloading the app. The most frequently heard point of criticism was the argument that privacy would be at stake. Despite an intensive information campaign by the government, it is a stubborn position with many supporters.
– .
