Contact tracing helps curb spread of virus

"The practice is not a new one; according to health officials it goes back hundreds of years. Essentially, contact tracing is an attempt to locate all of the people that someone with an illness has had contact with while infectious."

By

Opinion

July 15, 2020 - 9:46 AM

In grappling with the coronavirus pandemic, one point can be easy to overlook.

We don’t have many reliable tools to slow the spread of the outbreak.

Essentially, we have three methods. First, we can stay far away from one another — that’s known as social distancing. Second, we can wear face coverings, or masks. And finally, public health departments can do what’s known as contact tracing.

The practice is not a new one; according to health officials it goes back hundreds of years. Essentially, contact tracing is an attempt to locate all of the people that someone with an illness has had contact with while infectious. This allows them to quarantine and be tested for the illness, disrupting its wider spread.

In our hyper-fractured times, however, the practice itself has been criticized as infringing on people’s civil liberties, especially smartphone apps being developed that can track users’ movements. Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, in fact, supported restrictions to contact tracing in recent legislation, making it entirely voluntary.

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