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NY partygoers get subpoenas after stonewalling COVID-19 contact tracers:
Test, isolate, trace, quarantine: these are the bedrock public health measures proven effective at stamping out an infectious disease before it flares to the point where the only option left is to foist draconian lockdowns on whole populations.
[...] On Wednesday, officials in Rockland County—just north of New York City—reported a cluster of cases linked to a recent party of up to 100 people largely in their early 20s. At the time of the party, the host was infected and had symptoms but held the party anyway.
So far, at least eight attendees have tested positive for the virus. But many partygoers have refused to work with public health officials to track the potential spread and notify others who may have been infected and could go on to spread the disease further.
"We are not receiving the necessary cooperation when we contact those who are positive for COVID-19 or those who have been at some of these gatherings," Dr. Patricia Schnabel Ruppert, Rockland County's health commissioner said at a press briefing Wednesday.
She explained:
My staff has been told that a person does not wish to, or have to, speak to my disease investigators. They hang up. They deny being at the party even though we have found their name from another party attendee or a parent provides us with the information. Many do not answer their cell phones and do not call back. Sometimes parents answer for their adult children and promise that they have been home consistently when they have not been.
This must stop.
In response, Ruppert announced that the county will issue subpoenas to anyone who refuses to cooperate with contact tracing. So far, the county is processing eight subpoenas. In addition, those who do not comply will face civil fines of around $2,000 every day they are out of compliance.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Bot on Monday July 06 2020, @11:18AM (7 children)
I thought racial tension would be the excuse to enforce the police state, which has been in the works since the 60s. Turns out it's COVID. Oh well.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @03:32PM
So you were wrong about that too. But please carry on talking.
(Score: 2) by epitaxial on Monday July 06 2020, @05:25PM (5 children)
Who runs the "police state" and what is to be gained from enacting it?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @07:35PM (2 children)
That's definitely the first question people should always ask about any news. In this case it's pretty easy to answer. The police state is broadly operated by the political establishment. As for why, it's the same story as all police states throughout time.
People are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with our government. Imagine 99.9% of people would never even think of acting on this dissatisfaction in any way. Well 0.1% of 300,000,000 million means you have 300,000 people who would. That's a lot. And what protects the government from these 300,000? In reality, pretty much nothing. The loony [wikipedia.org] who tried to shoot at republicans during some congressional baseball game was an idiot and perhaps literally retarded. He went up to the game, asked a bystander who was playing to confirm it was congressmen and then started shooting with all the accuracy of a one armed drunk blindman. Nonetheless he nearly killed one congressman and injured numerous individuals. If people get mad enough, politicians are going to start dropping. As national polarization and governmental dissatisfaction grows such outcomes become more and more probable.
A police state is an effort to protect unpopular rulers of a nation from the people of that nation. Look at all the great tyrants throughout time and you'll three major recurring themes: seizure of arms, manipulation of media to advocate for establishment ideology, and establishment of a police state. All are about little more than than pacifying the people of the nation and trying to protect the bad actors in power. I also think it's fairly easy to even intuit. Imagine you were a member of congress in the hyper polarized America today and intelligence agencies were seeking approval to engage in widespread but constitutionally dubious surveillance. Are you really going to say no? As a citizen I loath such actions. I like to imagine I'd have the ethics and spine to say no as a congressman, but I am not sure I would. Self preservation > ideological world view, as I suspect is the case for most of all in congress.
The trick is to never get to a point to where the people of a nation hate their rulers. Democracy was supposed to achieve that, but those of sufficient ambition and resources have gotten quite good at breaking our democratic systems.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @07:43PM (1 child)
Blah blah blah in other words you don't know.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday July 07 2020, @07:28PM
The existing bodies that run the states today, will run the police state. That is, congress will run it from the top, and governors will manage individual police states under congress. For more info, check this out - https://www.termlimits.com/ [termlimits.com]
No, I don't mean that you should mindlessly sign the petition. Click the various links at the top of the page. THEN, if you want to sign the petition, go ahead and do so. I've signed.
(Score: 1) by zion-fueled on Tuesday July 07 2020, @02:12PM
What's to be gained? Absolute power. Who runs it? The politicians and business leaders. It's one of those things both parties always agree on. The spying has never been rolled back, only expanded.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Tuesday July 07 2020, @08:32PM
Come to Italy, epi, and see for yourself a police state in the making. Recent proposals by Veneto region president, indefinite detention at your expense in a government chosen medical facility if you are poor enough that your house cannot host you when believed COVID positive, no matter if showing symptoms. To be declared free you have to pass the tampon test twice. Instead of interning him the national government is nodding the head.
Account abandoned.