Expert warns NHS Test and Trace app is ‘overkill’ and it ‘should be stopped’ amid pingdemic

The NHS Test and Trace app is causing around 60,000 people be pinged which is affecting the workforce across England.

Within a month more than 1.7m people could have been pinged telling them to self-isolate.

A leading epidemiologist who runs the ZOE Covid symptom study, Professor Tim Spector has said the app is no longer “useful” and suspects the data will prove it “should be stopped.”

Professor Spector told Sky News, “I think employers should tell their staff if they feel unwell, they have cold-like symptoms, then they stay away but I don’t think the app saying that someone might have passed them by in a supermarket is actually that useful anymore in the current state of the pandemic.”

The epidemiologist added, “It doesn’t seem to be appropriate at the moment… it seems to be overkill.”

He concluded, that “I think employers have got to just use common sense.”

Experts are currently collecting evidence from those people who have been”pinged” to see how many went on to contract the virus.

In a few days the results of the data will be available and expects it will prove the NHS app is “not effective and should be stopped.”

The NHS app has caused a “pingdemic” as hundreds of thousands of workers are off work across England.

Petrol stations and supermarkets are having to close amid staff shortages, Iceland currently has more than 1,000 staff of work.

Supermarkets are struggling to keep their shelves full as Marks and Spencer has warned 20% of their workforce will be in isolation by mid-August and their opening hours will be reduced.

BP has had to close some petrol stations due to a shortage of diesel and petrol as drivers have been pinged by the app to self-isolate.