Posted on 06/16/2020 8:00:03 AM PDT by Kaslin
If reopening America is contingent on robust contact tracing then America will never reopen.
There were supposed to be armies. Grand armies of contact tracers crisscrossing every county in the country on the hunt for the Chinese virus. This was the key we were told to a safe reopening, they have been telling us this since back when they still told us not to wear masks. Soldiers in this army would interview anyone who tested positive and track down the people they spent time with.
Supposedly serious people with TV shows and everything said with straight faces that we might need 100,000 contact tracers, maybe more, maybe everyone needs to be a contact tracer. In New York, Michael Bloomberg stepped out of ubiquitous presidential ads (remember that?) right into being charged with leading the new public health Manhattan Project. The result looks more like a middling 4th grade science fair entry.
Oregon reported last week that that the state has no idea how many contact tracers it has in the field. In New York, several upstate counties are opting out of the program because their own local policies work better for them. Meanwhile in Gotham, Mayor Bill de Blasio betrayed the deeply unserious nature of his tracing efforts by telling his tracers not to ask if people who test positive had been at a political protest.
The rationale used by the most unpopular mayor in the history of cities was basically that its too many people trace anyway. So, first of all, most people don’t attend protests all by themselves, many go in groups, why on earth would a contact tracer not need to know about those people? Is this another case where social justice provides immunity to the virus? The upshot is that everyone has to tell the state everyone they come in contact with, unless you went to a protest, then you’re good.
So the brick and mortar, pavement-crunching approach to contact tracing is off to a horrible start. Lo and behold people aren’t nuts about public officials coming to their house to grill them on their associations. Good. But, could there be another way? Could technology come to the rescue as it has begun to do in other countries? No.
Last week a poll showed that 7 in 10 Americans would decline to install a contact-tracing app on their phone. This at a time in American life when you can’t get 7 in 10 Americans to agree that people drink coffee in the morning. But the best part of the poll is the other 3.
The 3 who are apoplectic in their indignation. They ask so little, “it’s just an app, and if it saves one life.” There are limits to what the American people will do for safety, having the state track all our movements blows past those limits into the next town.
What has dawned on the American people but has yet to be reflected on by most of our political leaders is that until there is a vaccine we have to accept risk, understand that lives will be lost, and get the country back to normal. The protests proved this beyond any doubt. New York Gov. Cuomo can’t logically tell people not to mingle with drinks on the street and de Blasio can’t tell Jews to get the hell out of the playground while they both celebrate massive protests.
Contact tracing is the road trip to San Francisco that every Gen Xer never took. You’d stay up late, rip some bong hits, plan it all out, where to stop, who to visit, but it never actually happened. Instead you went back to your normal life. Which is exactly what Americans need to do right now.
Those who insist America cannot fully reopen without robust contact tracing are holding the country hostage to a pipe dream. There is a reason why it was America that sparked the protests that destroyed the lockdown all across the world. It is because we are not a very compliant people. Whether in Michigan or in Minnesota and for a variety of reasons, Americans will protest and fight for their basic rights.
If government and scientists want to experiment with contact tracing to learn more about the spread of the virus through volunteers, great, why not. But if they try to make reopening conditional on their vision of complete enough tracing then they are putting roller-skates on a goalpost and keeping us in the dark about when the lights come back on. No more excuses. Open the country.
Contract tracing has proven to be a useful tool during infectious disease outbreaks. But that was in the halycion days when it was used by health professionals. Now, in the hands of the communist deep state, the tool has been weaponized to their own political ends and cannot be trusted.
Any contact tracers who show up on my property will be given an armed escort off my property.
Same problem with testing. They WANT to ramp up testing of random individuals, so they can catch asymptomatic cases, or better, show that the virus has died down (something that is hard to do testing only those people who think they have it).
Interestingly, when we were testing “people who were probably positives”, we were getting 15% positives, which shows how bad people were at knowing if they had it. (That was also driven by full-testing when they found cases).
But random tests are supposed to show if it is spreading around; if you test 100 random “non-sick” people, and find no cases, it suggests that you have controlled it. IF you find 20, it says it is still running all over, and you need to take caution.
BUT — nobody who is not sick wants to get tested, because if they find out they have it, they have to quarantine. Now I would want to know so I didn’t infect people, but a lot of people would rather risk infecting others than get locked in their houses for 2 weeks.
I actually read a story about some nurse who was pretty sure she was infected, but didn’t get tested because she knew if she tested positive, she wouldn’t be able to help her patients.
The communist Chinese coaching our governors to use “contact tracing” forgot one thing, it only works when the leaders are against the protests like in China, unlike the USA.
Do you have their app on your cell phone?
What Restaurant Apps Are Tracking on Android Smartphones
https://table.skift.com/2018/12/12/what-restaurants-are-tracking-on-android-smartphone-apps/
Why McDonald’s Is Looking To Track Customer Data
https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2017/04/13/why-mcdonalds-is-looking-to-track-customer-data/#5ac67ac335fb
I DON’T REMEMBER
As well it should be.
Don't know, I wouldn't have installed it.
If we want to get close to a normally functioning economy we need to identify problem areas and limit spread.
That won't happen by itself and I notice the author just assumes everything will be alright if we just go about life as normal.
The obvious problem with this thinking is the American people are too smart. They, not the government, shut down the economy. They also led the reopening - governors followed.
If we see big increases in Covid the people will shut things down again regardless of what the government says.
Contact tracing's a tool that's proven to work and those who oppose it do so at the cost of a slower recovery.
Apple wanted me to download the update with tracing. I’ve refused to download it so far.
You need to read up on it.
You obviously haven’t.
Save me some time. What's the biggest real life problem with it?
SNORT. It's working really well. We've got positives and their close contacts who refuse to stay home. Lots of people to rat them out. And nobody willing to make them stay put once ID'd.
Healthy people are locked up why?!?
The biggest problem?
What do you do after they’re traced...and then refuse to stay put?
In the US?
Probably nothing but scold.
Are you aware of anyone who's been forcibly detained for testing positive?
This is second hand from a person who took their training.
You are traced every second of the day.
You will be assigned a tracker.
They will make home visits.
If you come into contact with a positive person, you will be
forbidden to leave your home for fourteen days. If you go
back out after 14 days and cross paths with another
positive person, it’s fourteen days again, repeatedly.
If you have family, they will demand you be quarantined
separate from them. If there are children in the home,
they can determine it is unsafe for them, and take them
from you.
If you do not have the tracer app on your phone, and can
prove it, you won’t be able to enter businesses.
This gives them the power to know every person you know.
You have no private life. You have no privacy with what
friends, people, or gatherings you attend.
This extends to political considerations. You go to a
political rally, they know it. This may enhance your
visits and scrutiny.
This thing has totalitarian written all over it.
You don’t have to demonize it. Just tell folks what it
is, and that will demonize it all on it’s own.
Who's training?
The state of California is training people to do this right
now.
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