The sequence did not last more than thirty seconds and takes two sentences.
A question from France 2 "Have you downloaded StopCovid" and a response from the Prime Minister "I did not do it".
Jean Castex's explanations to justify himself ("I no longer take the metro"), will not change anything.
The damage is done.
The head of government did not download StopCovid, losing all legitimacy to recommend that the French do so.
However, the contact tracing application, developed at the request of the previous government, is supposed to be part of the device to prevent the spread of the epidemic.
It is far from being reserved for people who take public transport.
It is supposed to allow its users to warn - while respecting their anonymity - the people it has crossed paths with in the event of Covid-19 positivity.
In other words, it applies to anyone who crosses paths with others whom they do not necessarily know.
Which seems to be the case with Jean Castex.
Cacophony on an app
The Prime Minister's little sentence is all the more disturbing since he himself was in contact with Christian Prud'homme, the boss of the Tour de France, himself positive for the Covid.
The Prime Minister then had to be tested.
In this specific case, Christian Prud'homme knowing the people with whom he was in contact, but for the others, what about?
Jean Castex may recommend that the French download StopCovid, the damage is done.
The app, which has already faced torrents of criticism since its launch, is no doubt alive in recent days.
It is difficult to imagine how the government and in particular the Minister of Health Olivier Véran, who took over the file from Cédric O, could restart the machine.
Since its launch on June 2, the app has been downloaded less than 3 million times.
It enabled 280 contact cases to be notified.
It's not enough.
Poorly explained, it also suffers from the claim that it would be ineffective if less than 60% of the population uses it.
However, this type of application makes sense if an entire population pool uses it.
It can thus be relevant if it is installed by more than 60% of the students of a campus ...
France is not the only country to have this type of application.
But apart from China, which has not only made its use compulsory, but which imposes its use in order to be able to move in certain areas, no state has succeeded in convincing its population of the relevance of this type of digital tool. .
