The final Contact Tracer course was to discuss privacy, confidentiality, and ethics. This part of the course was very vague and did not address specific issues on those topics.
However, the presenter (Emily Gurley, Ph.D., Associate Scientist in the Department of Epidemiology at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health) addressed the reasoning for contact tracing in terms of addressing public safety.
“The person (infected or positive test) has the right to make their own decisions, true, unless decisions they make or things they do can harm someone else," Gurley said. "...but if they are not isolating or quarantining, that could harm someone else, and then they will have limits on their autonomy. In some circumstances, these requests may be mandated and enforced.
"That is because it is not entirely up to the person on the decision they make as it could harm others," she continued. "States and the U.S. government can act to protect the public welfare.”
What mandated and enforced policies and rules will apply in the future? This was not discussed, nor were privacy, medical confidentiality (HIPAA), ethics, or citizen's freedoms addressed during the training.
Public Health Departments want advanced technology and electronic systems that will link test results and a central database where positive test results can be reported. Gurley stated that phone applications will be more efficient than current methods of tracing.
As technology advances, Gurley said that tracers can expect to use applications to share information with the public health system.
Currently, Nevada does not mandate or require the use of phone applications for contact tracing. Smartphone users have recently seen COVID-19 notifications within their phone settings, but this is for information purposes only and not active unless a user downloads a contact tracing phone application with Bluetooth activated.
However, it was a notification that was placed on the phone by their mobile carriers without users being notified.
Could this kind of tracking by phone applications and a central database be coming to the United States? It is currently being used in China and South Korea. Will this be implemented to protect the public welfare?
Part 5 of this series will discuss my observations throughout the course. For Part 1 click here, for Part 2 click here, and for Part 3 click here.
Susan Thiel is a Content Writer for Convention of States Nevada. She can be reached at Susan.thiel@cosaction.com
