Fires in LA. Fires
in Atlanta. Fires in Minnesota. What a time to talk about big brother.
Contact tracing
through the cell phone.
The way it works is
an app is loaded onto everyone's phone. Then the users contact data,
coronavirus test results, and movement information is loaded into an enormous
database.
With that
information, if someone tests positive for coronavirus, everyone who has been
in contact with the infected individual for the previous 14 days will be
alerted.
The notified
individuals will then get tested and self isolate until their results come in.
This is currently
being used in China and is being touted as one way the country stopped the
spread of coronavirus.
Singapore, South
Korea, Australia and other countries have instituted the use of the app,
although in a much more limited fashion with mixed results.
There is contact
tracing in the US., but it is a very manual and human process. If someone tests
positive, then that person has to try and remember everyone they were in
contact with and then contact those people. But what if you don’t know who you
were standing next to in line at the grocery store?
The app would solve
this.
I like the idea in
theory, in a perfect world.
But there are
issues. Privacy is number one.
Few people,
including all of us with nothing to hide, are leery of anyone, from the
government to a for-profit app company knowing where we are, who we are
interacting with, for how long, at all times.
Wouldn't the
government state in a case of national emergency or local emergencies like
riots, try to gain access to this information to keep track of people?
After the last
couple of days, I doubt few people would sign up for an app that would track
their every move. (I know theories abound that it is already happening.)
And until we have a
good system
of testing, which is getting better by the day, I can't see how
effective the app would be at stopping the virus' spread. When I was tested a
couple of weeks ago, it took 7 days for me to receive my results.
Prior to the economy
reopening, such a significant delay would not be too costly. However with
businesses reopening, if I had tested
positive, a 7-day delay could put dozens of people at risk.
My son's school
opened last week. There were at least 35 people in the truck yard where he was
training. When I picked up lunch today at take out, there were two customer's
waiting inside and two employees whom I interacted with. On Monday's fishing
boat there will be another 34 people. At the fishing store there were 6 inside the store while I was there. At Target
and Pavilions, I can't count the number of people around me the last couple of
days.
Finally, over
100,000 people have died in the U.S., yet many people think the virus isn't
that bad. I think any number of deaths is horrible. However, the government is
reopening the economy throughout the U.S. The stock market is soaring again
with investors thinking the worst has past. And the number of people on the
street who are maskless is growing daily.
I think the
government would be hard-pressed to sell the idea of having everyone install a
contact-tracing app on their phone with the current feeling of the worst is
past for more and more Americans.
However, I also
think the government should create the internal framework to install a system
like this in case we do have a round 2 of coronavirus. A round 2 that is as
deadly as round 2 of the 1918 flu.
If that happens,
having to install a contact tracing app on our phone and losing some privacy
would be the least of our worries.
