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posted by martyb on Monday July 06 2020, @08:43AM   Printer-friendly
from the a-snitch-in-time-saves-nine dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 2) by acid andy on Monday July 06 2020, @01:25PM (3 children)

    by acid andy (1683) on Monday July 06 2020, @01:25PM (#1017006) Homepage Journal

    The modern consumerism generation

    Which generation(s) in particular did you have in mind? I suspect most of the young have too little income now to be true consumerists. I guess there's credit, but I think that really peaked before 2008.

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by HiThere on Monday July 06 2020, @02:53PM (2 children)

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Monday July 06 2020, @02:53PM (#1017052) Journal

    It's actually *still* a consumerist generation. Consumerism isn't at its heart buying lots of stuff, it's more about not being able to make stuff, not choosing to make stuff, or not being able to afford to make stuff. So all you can do is consume. If you buy more, you consume more, but the focus is still on consumption rather than on production. It seems to be the natural end state of industrial mass production.

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    • (Score: 2) by acid andy on Monday July 06 2020, @03:28PM

      by acid andy (1683) on Monday July 06 2020, @03:28PM (#1017067) Homepage Journal

      Ah yeah that's a good point. The more kids grow up around items that are very hard to dismantle and repair, the less interest and / or expectation they'll have in being able to do it. As you say, if they can't afford the tools and raw materials to make things, that will make the situation worse as well, although there are always ways around that if you're determined to be creative. There's always ebay or freecycle to get hold of old items that can be repaired or used to create things, and there's greater access to free information, on how to do it, than ever before (provided you have internet access, of course).

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    • (Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Wednesday July 08 2020, @10:07PM

      by Joe Desertrat (2454) on Wednesday July 08 2020, @10:07PM (#1018394)

      If you buy more, you consume more, but the focus is still on consumption rather than on production. It seems to be the natural end state of industrial mass production.

      SHOES FOR INDUSTRY!