News that the Government could soon turn to Amazon to solve its ongoing testing and tracing fiasco should come as no surprise.
The cohort of people that will be able to get tests in the UK will be restrained even further over the coming months with prioritisation lists set to be drawn up by health officials.
It is the opposite of what was meant to happen. The Government has made countless pledges to increase testing with the latest goal to reach 500,000 tests a day by the end of October, which would represent a doubling in capacity. Most of its targets have been missed.
By contrast, Amazon has enjoyed a sterling period through the pandemic, reporting record profits and establishing itself as a clutch for many of those stuck at home.
What’s more is the company has committed $4bn over the past three months to protect its staff and business model against coronavirus. Testing, face masks, thermal cameras and increased staffing have all been deployed by the marketplace giant to keep up its booming business.
“It’s the largest company on the planet that has to solve this problem for their own business continuity,” says Philip Green, a former Amazon Europe finance director.
“Therefore they’re also a company that can afford to throw a lot of science and capital towards the problem. Given that they’re already having to do this at scale, the only question is could they turn this around and provide it as a service?”
The Telegraph revealed on Friday that the Government will issue a tender for the entire “end-to-end” supply chain next month with a logistics firm eyed as the most-preferred suitor.
The tender says: “In order to significantly scale up the number of daily tests as well as making the operations more efficient, we are looking for an end-to-end management of all associated supply chain and logistics processes along the chain.”
To date, the management of the NHS Test and Trace programme has all been done in-house, but with winter approaching, the state is hoping to get beefier expertise on board.
The number of tests completed in a 24 hour turnaround
Hampshire-based Serco has also provided some 10,500 tracers to the Government to keep track of the virus, but it too has faced significant criticism over its handling of the system. Figures showed that just half of people from the same household as someone that had been infected with Covid-19 had been contacted.
For a company like Amazon to get on board it would very much need to do things its own way.
“The first mile, last mile bit, someone like Amazon could definitely do it,” says policy manager at Access Partnership Tiernan Kenny.
“Their logistics system is unparalleled. I think the main reason for a tech firm like Amazon being interested in getting involved would be if they were able to automate a huge amount of it.
“At which point there would be concerns on the side of the Government, where an automated system could leave some people behind.”
At the face of it, the benefits for Matt Hancock and Boris Johnson are obvious. Handing out parts of the system could allow them to attribute responsibility to various parties, making it easier to blame others over any given failing.
For some, the nationwide approach that seems to be being touted by the Government tender is the wrong approach.
Jonathan Ball, a professor of molecular virology at the University of Nottingham said the plan was “nothing new” and that the Government had pledged in March to increase testing capacity with the help of the private sector.
“But one look at the current state of the testing system would suggest this outsourcing approach has failed dismally,” he says.
“Rather than focus on large testing centres, and the logistical nightmares they bring, they should invest in local testing capacity in NHS labs and encourage and invest in local innovative large scale testing methods.”
Failure or not, something needs to be done to ramp up testing levels which are largely viewed as a crucial strand to help people return to their offices safely.
As it stands, “watch list” areas — which are locations with worryingly high levels of Covid-19, will be prioritised. So too will be the likes of schools, teachers, and pupils. The general public is likely to sit at the bottom of the list. The Government needs help — and quickly.
Moonshot programme
On the tracing front, “Amazon is not as well positioned as Google and Apple would have been, given that between them they control the smartphone market,” says founder at research group RadioFreeMobile Richard Windsor.
“But it will be able to do a better job than the Government, although that’s a low bar. Logistics play to Amazon’s strengths but track and trace is not a logistics problem really. It’s a software, data, and scale problem.”
While for now it is likely Amazon’s human resource and delivery expertise that would attract the Government, in the not too distant future it could be Amazon’s drone delivery service that could see tests dropped right on to a users doorstop.
Depending on how long we’re living with the pandemic, they could potentially provide a highly competent tool for testing nationwide.
“It’s more likely that you would have a drone drop off of a test and then later arrange for it to be collected, almost like an Uber-type service,” says Green.
With the Government promising a £10bn “moonshot” testing programme, maybe such “world-beating” technology is not so far-fetched after all?
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