Unemployed to be hired as 'contact tracers'

A "contact tracing" plan has been announced as part of an effort to limit and contain the spread of the coronavirus. The announcement was made by Governor Jay Inslee, with members of the National Guard and the Department of Licensing, to use 1,371 people made up of 351 National Guard personnel, 630 local and state health workers and 390 state Department of Licensing staffers to identify Washingtonians who came in contact with confirmed COVID-19 patients.

Last week, at the governor’s direction, Washington State agencies sent out a hiring plan for people who have lost jobs as a result of the stay at home and shutdown orders to become contact tracers. This has raised questions as to the funding of the positions when the state is facing a 7 billion dollar or larger hole in their 52 billion dollar budget created by loss of tax revenue from the shutdown.

Testing, isolation and contact tracing are the "three legs" of the Governor’s plan. Inslee said "…when a patient has tested positive for COVID-19, they will be contacted by a tracer, who will attempt to piece together other people the infected patient has been around. Those affected will be directed to self-quarantine and be tested to determine their status."

At the press conference, the governor also announced his plan for restaurants to reopen during phase 2 of his reopening plan which also mandates availability of hand sanitizer and use of face coverings, no bar seating, limits to parties of less than five, 50 percent occupancy or less, tables to be six feet apart or with walls between them, no buffets or salad bars, single-use menus, minimal staff, and sanitized condiments.

If the establishment offers table service, the business must create a daily log of all customers and maintain that daily log for 30 days, including telephone/email contact information, and time that they patronized the restaurant. This is to facilitate any contact tracing that might need to occur.

Public reaction to the new restaurant requirements was swift and fierce. Restaurants typically operate on at less than two percent profit margins and cannot make a profit or even break in under these requirements. Many cannot accommodate the capacity guidelines because of space limitations. As a result, many restaurateurs have opted to remain closed until they can fully reopen.

Governor Inslee ran unsuccessfully for President while trying to position himself as the Anti Climate Change/Pro Green New Deal candidate. It is ironic that he is now imposing single use condiments typically sold in unrecyclable material and single use menus rather than laminated copies that can be disinfected.

The fiercest reaction from social media and political pundits was regarding the mandated daily log of customers seen as a violation of privacy laws. While the governor repeatedly insisted that the information would remain private and protected, the governor’s own "snitch list," including people's personal contact info, of those who were reported friends, neighbors, co-workers, employers, companies and total strangers was recently made public through public disclosure requests.

The list contained many people reporting their political opponents, businesses reporting their competitors and a lot of assumptions about what people thought they saw out of their windows.

Restaurant patrons might be expected to use shared pens and paper to fill out a list or use a kiosk that has to be disinfected when they walk into a restaurant, creating a social distancing problem in addition to placing the onus of collecting and securing the personal data on the restaurant owners. This is a growing concern due to the increase in break ins to retailers during the pandemic.

Many pundits on social media were quick to say if they do go out, they would pay in cash and give the name and information of Governor Inslee. Others said they would opt not to go to restaurants creating an even bigger potential impact on the already floundering restaurant industry.

Meanwhile grocery, home improvement and other retailers who have been open, are not required to collect personal information of shoppers and no requirement was mandated for them to do so.

The tracing program created by Governor Inslee for Washington is even stricter than ones imposed six weeks ago in places like New Rochelle, New York, one of the early epicenters of the US outbreak. Meanwhile Inslee has repeatedly said that Washingtonians have achieved the goal of “flattening the curve” and many counties are jumping ahead to phase 2 because there are so few new cases if any at all. Interestingly, Washington State is not tracking Coronavirus recoveries even though individual counties are.

To many, this new program seems to be an over reaction or a case of too little too late. This in addition to the privacy concerns and uneven application of the rules. Residents feel that the mandates would have been more appropriate and better received in February at the start of recognition the outbreak. The sad reality is that even if every citizen in the US was tested tomorrow, the results would be obsolete by the following day. With businesses reopening across the state in defiance of shutdown orders and large crowds gathering despite social distance requirements, it remains to be seen if Washington residents and businesses comply with the new contact tracing regulations.