Dan Wootton: There's only one way to end the pingdemic - ignore the app!

I have been advocating a common sense and voluntary approach to restrictions throughout this coronavirus pandemic.

One where the public is trusted to make sensible decisions - because that’s the only way a democratic society can function in the long-term.

So there’s one way for us to end the current pingdemic, which is seeing shops shut, supermarket aisles stripped, junior doctors forced off hospital wards en masse, petrol stations closed, transport routes stopped and the armed forces worried about protecting the country: Ignore the app!

A record 618,903 of us were pinged in England and Wales alone in the last seven days, a record number that is beginning to cripple the country on a week we were meant to get our freedoms back.

But as government minister Paul Scully correctly pointed out earlier this week, there is no legal requirement to isolate for ten days if you’re pinged by the app. The only legal requirement is if you’re personally contacted by the government contact tracers.

There’s a reason why the app is voluntary because people are being pinged pointlessly for reasons like their neighbour testing positive or after going through a McDonald’s drive through.

If you are concerned, perhaps use a lateral flow test to provide the reassurance. But for the sake of the country, if you don’t have coronavirus then there’s no reason to be locked in your house.

The government must immediately release a list of key workers exempt from the app and change its sensitivity before anyone with half a brain turns it off like I have.