Brians356
Gold $$ Contributor
I mentioned the coercive force of governments. Aggressive contact tracing and compulsory quarantine are features of certain countries' success stories. Countries with compulsory police-enforced quarantines include S. Korea, Singapore, UK, Italy, and Spain. Germany's quarantines are "state-mandated".Comparing S. Korea to the US is interesting, but fairly ridiculous. As I recall S. Korea is the size of Indiana, with half its population clustered in greater Seoul. With a centralized government having vastly more coercive power than ours, how simple to aggressively test and control their population? Add to that the fact that Koreans, like the Japanese, have been accustomed to wearing facemasks in public for generations.
-
China launched phone apps that use either direct geolocalization via cellphone networks, or data compiled from train and airline travel or highway checkpoints. Their use, and quarantines, are compulsory. South Korea ordered a tracking app installed on the phone of anyone ordered into isolation. Such mobile app programs have alarmed certain rights activists, who say officials and companies could be tempted to compile huge databases on people's movements and activities.
In the US, each state conducts their own contact tracing, referring to CDC guidelines. There is no national one-size-fits-all contact tracing program, nor could there be. And Americans will never submit to compulsory phone apps or policed quarantines, nor should they.
Contact tracing in the US seems to amount to interviewing Covid-19 victims and gathering names and contact info (email addresses and/or phone numbers) of contacts. Then some attempt is made to contact those people via email or phone. Any forthcoming cooperation is essentially voluntary. I'm pretty sure that in China, Singapore, and S. Korea (all countries I've spent time in) if you don't answer your phone or an email, someone in a uniform and a foul mood will come banging on your door.
Here's probably all you'll want to know about the state of contact tracing in the US and elsewhere:
https://www.lawfareblog.com/what-ever-happened-digital-contact-tracing
-
Last edited: