Will you comply?
In the May 26, 2020 Broomfield City Council Special meeting, Jason Vahling, Broomfield Public Health Director, briefly discussed the implementation of Contact Tracing. He and Jennifer Hoffman, City and County Manager, praised Broomfield residents saying that we were a “compliant city”. They know from their data, and the reports from the City Council approved 25 person compliance task force, that residents are going along with mask and distancing edicts. We may be forced to become even more compliant when the city fully staffs it’s Contact Tracing Program.
For those unfamiliar with this concept, it’s stated intent is for the state to quell the spread of infectious disease by identifying and documenting those infected, in this case, by COVID-19. Here is the CDC’s definition - ”Contact tracing, a core disease control measure employed by local and state health department personnel for decades, is a key strategy for preventing further spread of COVID-19. Immediate action is needed. Communities must scale up and train a large contact tracer workforce and work collaboratively across public and private agencies to stop the transmission of COVID-19.”
The goal is to quarantine all who are infected. Contact Tracing is a legally sanctioned program that can apply to all qualifying infectious diseases. The information is then passed down to municipal agencies.
On the surface that sounds fairly reasonable, about as reasonable sounding as the Affordable Care Act, The Patriot Act and Net Neutrality. But is it? The Broomfield Public Health (BPH) and City Council’s Contact Tracing program has been a longstanding facet of the health department but has been adjusted to specifically deal with the COVID-19. During a recent conversation with Sarah Mauch, communications specialist for Mr Vahling, the new and improved Contact Tracing department is headed by Helene Lanzer. Ms Lanzer is the BPH’s Nurse Administrator and supervises the Nursing Programs and epidemiological disease investigations. In order to staff this program, Mr Vahling indicated during the May 12th special council meeting that, through tax dollars, the county would be hiring two new epidemiologists. This team will be responsible for managing testing information from the state and then conducting interviews and investigations about the private lives of citizens.
The resources for these endeavors come from State and County taxpayers. In the conversation with Ms. Mauch, she was not aware of the total cost to taxpayers. However, to date Broomfield was awarded $99,151 from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to help offset costs related to it’s COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Response. In addition, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) has indicated an additional $99,000 will be awarded in the near future to offset costs for disease control and response. The new funding will help to offset personnel costs for the two new epidemiologists.
To further roll out the contact tracing program, the city is now looking to hire even more tracers. Without tracers the city could not reach the numbers they would like to see. These new hires will be responsible for the task of interviewing and tracking not only the test subject but also their contacts and their contacts contacts. Any quarantine and health recommendations coming from Broomfield Public Health is enforced by the county and are legally binding. From the conversation with Ms. Mauch, she said “We provide a lot of information and education to an individual subject regarding their order and have not had any issues with violations to date.”
It seems that Ms. Hoffman was correct. The residents of Broomfield are not only compliant with mask wearing but also in divulging their private health and contact information. Ms. Mauch stated that they have a number of “techniques” to persuade subjects to comply, they could send a letter of enforcement if residents balked at or questioned the cities authority to move deeper into their lives. Ms. Mauch stated that some enforcement would take the form of daily calls and check ins and further health education.
Subjects are subtly and directly pressured into compliance, from every angle. Take for example the type of pressure that is assigned to those who do not wear a mask. They are accused of being selfish, of not doing their part, that they care more about money and economics than they do about life, threats of ventilators and on and on. Mr Vahling utilized this technique of persuasion by stating that the city wide compliance with the edicts thus far has led to the city being able to open-up. With this type of city council endorsed pressure, it is difficult for someone to be in the “non-compliant” category despite numerous studies and experts who have evidence that the virus is 98% curable.
This type of pressure is applied to Contact Tracing expectations as well. If this program is effective at some point everyone in the city could have their COVID-19 status documented and tracked.
Jared Polis told President Trump in his DC meeting that Colorado was indeed opening up. However, with Broomfield officials layering additional levels of government like requiring more licensing and permitting, being held accountable for the temperatures of their patrons, forcing random distancing regulations and now being tracked and forced to give up the names of those with whom one has come in contact is this really the definition of being open?
Mr Vahling mentioned in the last CoVID Townhall that the city will even be asking restaurants to take reservations so that these lists may be referenced when contact tracing is necessary for patrons who may have tested positive. Will the citizens of Broomfield continue to cede more and more power over to city council?
Will we willingly give up our right to privacy, to move about freely and anonymously and to our personal health information?
Or, will we channel our ancestors and resist opening the door to more intrusion into our daily lives?
We must remember that they can only take our freedom if we let them.