Why Covert Pirates?

Why did I make CovertPirates.com?

Because the Government stopped publishing Exposure Sites. Ordinarily this is something that they should be doing. They had the data and the means to make it available to the public, but they stopped.

There were some good websites already such as https://covid19nearme.com.au/ but they stopped adding new exposure sites once the official reports were no longer being released.

The other reason I made CovertPirates.com was because I was angry. NSW Health said they "will no longer list case locations that a COVID-19 positive person has attended. This is due to a number of reasons, including high vaccination rates in the community." I found this excuse appalling for a number of reasons.

The first reason was that at the time, kids under 12 years of age couldn't get vaccinated. Parents needed the exposure site information to help minimise their kids' exposure to the virus. Without that information it was difficult to make informed decisions about where to go shopping, etc. It's not just the kids though, there are people in our community that suffer from immunodeficiency disorders. This sort of information would be invaluable to them. I think the removal of exposure sites was deliberate on the part of the Government, it seems they were more focused on getting business back on track then on fighting the virus or about the welfare of the people they were supposed to be helping. It always irked me that they conveniently excluded the kids when calculating the percentage of people vaccinated. Everything is fine, don't worry! Perhaps they thought that by not showing Covid Exposure Sites they would increase the number of people out shopping? Perhaps by ignoring it, it will go away?! Nice plan.

The second reason is that the government already had the data and they already had the means to provide that data to the community. It would have been much better if this information came from official channels than from a third party website. What possible reasons could they have for not making it public?

The third reason was that they couldn't even be bothered to explain all their reasons for stopping the publication of Covid-19 Case Locations. It should be pointed out that at the time, Omicron wasn't even a blip on the radar, so they can't claim they were overwhelmed by the number of cases. The fact is, they are still gathering that Covid Exposure Venue information and issuing alerts via the relevant state apps. So there shouldn't be any excuses worthy enough to justify stopping the publication of exposure information.

I've singled out the NSW Government, but Victoria also stopped publishing Exposure Sites as well as the Tasmanian Department of Health and Queensland stopped posting anything except major outbreaks and superspreading events from the 31st of December 2021. I wouldn't be surprised if the rest of the States and Territories follow suit as there seems to be a general push in that direction by the Federal Goverment. UPDATE- almost all the official sites for reporting Covid Exposure Sites have stopped publishing exposure venues.

It's important to note, that when each of the above states stop publishing Case Locations, most also remove the list of Exposure Sites. Even though the information becomes old, we could have used that data to look for things like patterns of infection.

Anyway, I've finished my Rant, but if you feel the same way or think that Exposure sites should be published, please help by telling like minded people or by posting any Exposure notifications you receive on the website here. Thanks!