FACT CHECK TRACE Act won’t remove people from homes
The claim: Contact tracing allows workers to forcibly enter homes, remove people
As states begin to reopen and Americans return to work, local governments and health officials are tasked with monitoring the spread of the coronavirus to proactively address any potential outbreaks.
One method for tracking the spread is contact tracing, a process of identification of individuals who may have come into contact with an infected person.
On May 1, U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, Dillinois, introduced a contact tracing proposal that would help local agencies identify people who were exposed to the coronavirus.
H.R. 6666 – the COVID-19 Testing, Reaching, And Contacting Everyone Act would allow local clinics, hospitals, schools and nonprofits to apply for funding under a new grant program.
Soon after the legislation was introduced, people took to social media to discuss their interpretation and critics of the proposal.
A viral Facebook post from Shilamida Kupershteyn claimed contact tracing would allow the government to enter homes at any time and remove family members who had been exposed to the coronavirus. The post ultimately claimed “contact tracing takes away all of your freedom.” USA TODAY has reached out to Kupershteyn for a comment, but hasn’t received a response.
Other similar claims about forced removal related to the TRACE Act have been made across Facebook.
What would HR 6666 actually do?
According to the legislation and a statement from Rush’s office, the bill would set aside $100 billion for “community health centers, school based health centers, academic medical centers, non-profits, and other entities who would hire and train individuals to operate mobile testing units, as well as outreach in hot spots and medically underserved areas.”
Recipients of funds would then have to use the money to buy testing equipthe ment and personal protective gear and hire, train and pay members of the community to operate mobile testing units as well as door-to-door outreach.
The legislation does not provide specifics on how grant recipients should conduct contact tracing procedures.
According to the statement, the objective of the bill – and contact tracing as a whole – is to figure out how COVID-19 is spreading through individual communities. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states contact tracing is a “key strategy” for reducing further spread of COVID-19.
During contact tracing, health staff works with patients to help identify everyone they may have come in contact with while they were potentially infectious. Public health staff then warns these individuals about their potential exposure, without revealing the identity of the original patient. They provide information and support to help the contacts understand the risk, monitor themselves and separate from others if necessary.
contacts are encouraged to stay home and social distance for 14 days, in order to prevent potentially furthering the spread of the virus. If contacts do become ill, they can notify the health staff so they can be tested and determine if medical care is necessary.
The CDC says, “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.”
Estimates for the number of contact tracers needed range from 100,000 to 300,000. Tens of thousands of Americans have applied for contact tracer roles, and over 11,000 contact tracers are working in the U.S. as of late April, according to NPR.
Legislation misinterpretations
Critics of the bill, including the author of the viral Facebook post mentioned above, appear to believe that the legislation would allow testing workers to forcibly enter homes and potentially take members of the household to “safe houses.”
However, the bill states “nothing in this section shall be construed to supersede any Federal privacy or confidentiality requirement.”
Meaning, the legislation will uphold the rights laid out in privacy protections, the Fourth Amendment right to privacy and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
“This bill does not authorize anyone to enter your home, for whatever reason, without your permission, nor does it allow the government to remove anyone from your home because of the coronavirus,” Rush said on his website.
Our rating: False
The claims in the post have been rated false. The bill’s language explicitly states that the legislation would not supersede any existing privacy protections. All testing done by contact tracing groups would be voluntary, testing groups could not enter homes against the owner’s wishes and members of the household would not be forcibly taken.
The bill’s language explicitly states that the legislation would not supersede any existing privacy protections.
Our fact-check sources:
❚ State of COVID-19 Contact Tracing in the U.S.
❚ H.R. 6666: COVID-19 Testing, Reaching, And Contacting Everyone Act
❚ Press release: Rush Introduces Bipartisan Legislation to Fund $100 Billion Coronavirus Testing and Contact Tracing Effort
❚ Cornell Law School, 14th Amendment
❚ Cornell
Amendment
❚ U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, health information privacy
Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.
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