Contact tracing, a tool that is used in the public health arena for sudden disease outbreaks (think HIV and TB), has now taken on an entirely new meaning. Overly zealous blue-state governors and Democrats in Congress are proposing a gigantic new system of contact tracing for COVID-19 that has nothing to do with health but everything to do with surveillance. H.R. 6666 proposes an allocation of $100 billion to create contact tracing on an unprecedented national scale. Even though the bill hasn't passed yet, many states and cities are already implementing intrusive and completely unconstitutional recommendations to track down people who might have been exposed to COVID-19, determine if those people need to be isolated, and keep records of their personal medical information. As David Marcus explains, it looks eerily like the beginnings of a Chinese-style social credit system -- but wait; that could never happen here... Reprinted with permission. Pat Daugherty, Ed.D.

May 20, 2020