A rough road to reopening state economy
Even before the supposed peak of COVID-19 cases has hit Connecticut, with hospitalizations and deaths continuing to climb, much public attention has shifted to a plan to reopen the economy. Given the unprecedented hit to local and national commerce, it’s easy to understand why.
Businesses are facing unprecedented challenges. Few have the wherewithal to survive a sustained shutdown, and with no end in sight to the coronavirus-directed social distancing, there’s no way to plan for the future. The economic fallout is already devastating and stands to get even worse.
But even as we approach and pass the virus’ peak, there is little indication that a safe way to reopen is on the horizon. What we need is testing on a vast scale that is to date unavailable. Without the ability to test people quickly and efficiently, there will be no way to tell who is sick and needs to be quarantined.
Unfortunately, the nature of the virus means that even testing will not be enough. Gov. Ned Lamont and his team looking at ways to reopen the economy have focused attention on what’s called contact tracing, which raises any number of dystopian possibilities but a version of which is probably unavoidable it we are to safely allow people out of their homes. In the absence of a vaccine, which remains far away, contact tracing will be a part of our lives.
It is likely to work in the form of an app that people would download on their phones or other mobile devices that would track their movements, along with everyone else’s, and alert them if they have come into contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, and allow them to be tested themselves and self-quarantine. This is necessary because the disease can spread before people develop symptoms, which makes tracking the disease without technology that much more difficult.
It may keep people safer, but the privacy issues raised by contact tracing are monumental. As the American Civil Liberties Union and other advocates have argued, people will need to trust their information will not be misused — sold to advertisers, for instance — and that it will only be utilized for purposes of tracking the coronavirus. If large numbers of people don’t trust it and don’t use it, the technology would be as good as worthless.
That means the information tracking people’s movements must be stored by a trusted entity, one that could not under any circumstances gain from it. Many people would feel more comfortable with a third party outside the government, perhaps a nonprofit, holding the data, which should be self-deleting after a certain period. And everything about the process would necessarily be voluntary.
Nothing about this will be easy. The economic damage will be severe under any circumstances. But to get to a place where we can start to think about reopening the economy, testing and contact tracing will be necessary components so people can feel safe venturing out into the world. Lamont and his team are tasked with doing so in a way that will ensure people feel comfortable with the process.
To get to a place where we can start to think about reopening the economy, testing and contact tracing will be necessary components so people can feel safe venturing out into the world.