Are you safe with ‘COVIDSafe’?

The Australian Government says that their app will make us “COVIDSafe”, but the evidence is emerging that we should protect ourselves in other ways.

• The federal government has shown it is irresponsible with sensitive data and with protecting your privacy. Scandals with My Health Record, unregulated police access of ClearView AI facial recognition, overstepped and illegal metadata access, and web companies required to create encryption backdoors should serve as a warning. Australians who alert the app that they have tested positive do so at their own risk, even after privacy legislation is rushed through this week.
• iOS phones (prior to latest iOS 13.5 beta) will not give the COVIDSafe app top priority for Bluetooth in the background, and thus will not keep an accurate record of your proximity. This inaccuracy of 54% of all smartphones in Australia is an acknowledged problem.
• There is no evidence that you cannot get infected after 5 or 10 minutes of exposure. The app will not detect less than 15 minutes of proximity with an infected person, or that you have touched an infected surface. The highest risk is not outdoor surfaces, but indoor surfaces like supermarket fridges.
• Prior to travel restrictions, 85% of infections were undocumented. Afterwards, this fell to 65% according to a May 1 article in Science Mag. You are highly likely to be infected by someone who has not been tested.
• Therefore, if you are older, or have diabetes, or have a high risk of a respiratory infection like the flu, you should distance yourself, and especially take Vitamin A, C and D supplements, among others, as immune experts say these equip your immune system. Why is the government not informing the public about how sunlight, vitamin supplements and exercise are protective for your immune system?

There appears to be a connection between nutrition and immunity in the elderly, according to Harvard Medical School.

The School states:

A form of malnutrition that is surprisingly common even in affluent countries is known as ‘micronutrient malnutrition.’ Micronutrient malnutrition, in which a person is deficient in some essential vitamins and trace minerals that are obtained from or supplemented by diet, can happen in the elderly.

There is some evidence that various micronutrient deficiencies — for example, deficiencies of zinc, selenium, iron, copper, folic acid, and vitamins A, B6, C, and E — alter immune responses in animals, as measured in the test tube.

To boost your immune health, the HMS article recommends: a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, exercise, maintain a healthy weight, moderate or lower alcohol consumption, and adequate sleep. Removing lifestyle factors like smoking, excess alcohol and stress reduce risk.

It is safer to practise self-regulated risk management, but Western countries are leaning ever more into socialist medicine.

Socialism is the practice of taking the risk-reward balance out of the hands of individuals and putting it progressively into the hands of the state.

It is dangerous to depend on the government to manage every kind of risk as this undermines privacy, freedom, liberty and health.

“Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety” were the prescient words of Benjamin Franklin. These words should be heeded.