Community Chat

[pigletsmom]

Also the Governor shouldn't be going on TV claiming he infected 12 people when they have zero evidence of that. Geez.

But I will add they are probably not naming the place to not out someone's personal health information. I believe in this case he sort of waived that right.

[jackiew]

I actually think contact tracing through cell phone would be very effective.  Sign me up.

My choice, it's not for everyone obviously.

[nevergivesup]

I’m not trying to convince anyone to change their point of view but I would just like to point out that contact tracing is a commonly used tool used in the field of public health as well as shelter in place, social distancing, use of ppe’s etc. Contact tracing apps are being used in United Kingdom, Australia, all through Europe and Asia. Further information is easily available if you want to read about it.

I guess I’m just trying to say that whether we like these measures or not, whether we intend to cooperate or not, these are not some weird ideas cooked up by some American politicians. These are established techniques in the field of public health medicine and have been employed for years with the AIDS epidemic and in serious communicable disease outbreaks worldwide.

So for those who are angry and upset over the situation it would be more accurate to say, “i reject the accepted policies of international epidemiologists and public health experts instead of framing this as a political tactic unique to our country. Again, this is a worldwide pandemic that is wreaking havoc on every economy on every continent, not just ours.

[pigletsmom]

Instead of contract tracing by cellphone I'd rather they encourage people to sign up for Nixle so they could just send out a mass notice to everyone in the area about a positive. I actually think it's weird that it isn't used more for this. We had someone that worked at Popeye's that tested positive and I don't know how people would know. I happened to see the headline on my newspapers website but that page is constantly changing so it would easily be missed. They should have put it out on Nixle. They certainly know how to use it when it's snowing and the parking rules are being enforced. You get an annoying text every 5 minutes.

[noodleann]

---

@nevergivesup wrote:

I’m not trying to convince anyone to change their point of view but I would just like to point out that contact tracing is a commonly used tool used in the field of public health as well as shelter in place, social distancing, use of ppe’s etc. Contact tracing apps are being used in United Kingdom, Australia, all through Europe and Asia. Further information is easily available if you want to read about it.

I guess I’m just trying to say that whether we like these measures or not, whether we intend to cooperate or not, these are not some weird ideas cooked up by some American politicians. These are established techniques in the field of public health medicine and have been employed for years with the AIDS epidemic and in serious communicable disease outbreaks worldwide.

So for those who are angry and upset over the situation it would be more accurate to say, “i reject the accepted policies of international epidemiologists and public health experts instead of framing this as a political tactic unique to our country. Again, this is a worldwide pandemic that is wreaking havoc on every economy on every continent, not just ours.

---

The AIDS contact tracing was done by questioning the person who tested positive about his or her intimate partners or people who were sharing needles and works. It was Q&A. It was in the open and consensual.

This is not. It's essentially spying on people via the location data on their phones. That's not okay with me. I don't care what Europe and Asia are doing. I was stunned to read about what's going on in China. It won't happen here. 

This reminds me of the saying attributed to Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary Safety deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

Open and consensual. No one should object to that.

[jackiew]

It doesn't bother me if they're tracking my phone for this purpose.  If they can let me know that I was interacting with a carrier, then I can self isolate and get tested.  I would be okay with that. That's me. I don't expect everyone to be comfortable with that, but I would be.

[Cats3000]

If the term "contact tracing" doesn't scare the life out of you, you need to take a step back.  If you like the term "new normal", you need to take step back.  Do you really want some government-paid snoop knowing every step you take.  Do you really want the government looking over your shoulder day and night? 

We have ceded our freedom to the government in the belief that we'd somehow be safer. Whether we are or not is open to question.  What is not open to question is the desire of liberal government officials to retain power over the people for as long as possible.  That's their definintion of the "new normal". 

[CalminHeart]

While I don't wish covid on anyone, the barber and customers didn't use the brains they were born with.  Karma.

[nevergivesup]

@Cats3000 @noodleann  Maybe I didn’t express myself clearly. I wasn’t expressing an opinion about whether I liked or didn’t like contact tracing or any of these public health policies. I was just making the point that they are accepted worldwide strategies for dealing with epidemics, not something dreamed up by politicians you may or may not like.

Personally I was amazed when I researched the contact tracing apps used in Australia, UK, Asia, Europe etc. I won’t join Facebook and I’m one of the remaining dinosaurs who only has a flip phone for emergencies because I’m just not happy with a lot of the implications of this technology. We are all having our personal data collected and followed including using this forum. Everytime I google a topic, two minutes later I see the pop ups related to it. I don’t like it but I know it’s here to stay and I’m glad most of my life unfolded before it got so fast!

[jackiew]

If you've been using the Internet and think the government can't find pretty much anything about you, you're pretty naive.  You gave up total privacy a long time ago. I think anyone posting here already knows that. 

It's not me they're tracing it's my phone.  I want to know if my phone has been around someone with the virus so I can do what I think is necessary.