Letters


and with results available in a relatively short time – the outlook is not optimistic.


Testing and tracing Testing and Tracing in the UK has come under considerable scrutiny, and rightly so, for the UK, a G7 nation to have at the very least 41,465 (government figures at press time) COVID-19 fatalities with figures from the ONS of Excess Deaths at an astounding minimum of 52,000 – reflects the added complex issue of the different modes of measuring the COVID fatality rate. Information obtained from the BBC’s


Panorama programme shows that whilst Germany has its testing facilities manned by medical students and supervised by a medical doctor, the privately-appointed UK facilities do not oſten even have a nurse on duty. Tis by its very mode of operation then


brings into question the entire COVID-19 results data obtained in the UK compared to those obtained by the other G7 nations. Measurement and comparative measurements depend on the validity and reliability of data


collected and collated. As for tracing, the UK’s “world-beating


tracing system” according to the prime minister, seems to have been largely abandoned aſter its contact tracing app’s failures. Experts warned it would not work, but, despite this, aſter wasting three precious and critical months – not to mention millions of pounds, the country is back to basics. Worse still, this mode of data-gathering


comes with unacceptable security risks that cybersecurity experts say have not been addressed. Tis inevitably will probably lead to ethical and legal minefields to be contended with for which neither resources nor time are available! In Germany, they have testing and


tracing so well set up that the country listed 239,000 cases in July, 2020, and a mortality rate of just 9,352 (according to Worldometer.info at the time of going to press), with 211,000 people who have recovered. According to the World Economic


A letter from 1928…


We recently came across this letter sent to Wireless World (the original guise of Electronics World magazine) in 1928, which we wanted to share with you:


S


ir, — Te letter from Noel Bonovia-Hunt, in your issue of Aug. 29th last cannot but provide many of your readers with grave doubts as to the superiority of his apparatus.


Your correspondent has noticed “wonderful progress” in amplifier design, but it is difficult to gather from his letter whether he has applied modern knowledge to the design of his amplifier. Is it not general practice to so design the


layout of wireless apparatus so that no grid- current flows? Do we not bias our grids so that under no circumstances can the coupling condensers become charged to the extent of passing current? Yet Mr. Hunt would have us believe that we


have to consider the “discharge of each signal from the grid”, and that the formula T = CR is an important factor.


Seeing that the coupling condensers in


a well-designed amplifier are virtually an open circuit, where can we apply the time factor? Further, there being no conductive path from grid to filament, where can we apply the current factor? It would appear that Mr. Hunt is confusing the issue in question by regarding the coupling condensers in the same light as the output condenser feeding the L.S. Apparently the writer of the letter is


merely quoting phrases from some back- dated literature. If this is not so, then the only conclusion to be drawn from his letter is that he positively revels in allowing grid- current to flow, and then utilises subterfuges to conceal its effects. Would it not be more in keeping with


modern design to lay the bogey at the door and see to it that our amplifiers do not suffer from this defect?


www.electronicsworld.co.uk September/October 2020 61


F. W. WOLSTENHOLME. Retford, Notts. September 3rd, 1928


Forum, secure, reliable and verifiable data will play a major role in beating COVID-19 – whether through track-and-trace schemes, testing programmes or better understanding how the virus works. Te France-based international online


data exchange Dawex has created a COVID-19 Data Exchange initiative. It opens up Dawex’s platform free of charge to companies and organisations that need to exchange non-personal data for studies about the coronavirus and limiting its economic harm. As the electronics industry has put into


place so many global standardised codes and regulations, clearly the sooner an internationally-recognised procedure is implemented around testing and tracing, the more chance the global community has of winning at least some battles against COVID-19.


KAREN MASCARENHAS, Director, Mascarenhas PR, UK


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