Washington gov: Those who don’t cooperate with ‘contact tracers’ and tests not allowed to leave home
OLYMPIA, Washington, May 14, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Washington Governor Jay Inslee indicated that people who refuse to cooperate with contact tracers or refuse coronavirus testing won’t be allowed to leave their homes even to go to the grocery store or pharmacy.
“When it comes to contact tracing, how are you guys going to handle people or families who want to refuse to test or to self isolate? If they want to leave their home to get groceries I know you’ve said they can’t do that; how will you make sure they don’t?” a reporter asked him.
“We will have attached to the families a family support person who will check in with them to see what they need on a daily basis,” he responded. “If they can’t get a friend to do their grocery shopping, we will help get them groceries in some fashion. If they need pharmaceuticals to be picked up, we will make sure they get their pharmaceuticals… We are going to be there on a daily basis for them – now that’s going to help encourage them to maintain their isolation too.”
The Lynwood Times summarized Inslee’s remarks this way: “Therefore, those individuals that refuse to cooperate with contact tracers and/or refuse testing, those individuals will not be allowed to leave their homes to purchase basic necessities such as groceries and/or prescriptions. Those persons will need to make arrangements through friends, family, or a state provided ‘family support personnel.’”
Inslee announced that as the state begins to relax restrictions and open up its economy, health officials will focus on contact tracing and isolation of infected individuals with the help of over 1,300 newly trained “contact tracers” who will begin work this Friday, May 15.
Critics were quick to point out disturbing aspects of the new effort in the Evergreen State.
For those individuals that refuse to cooperate with contact tracers and/or refuse testing, will not be allowed to leave their homes to purchase basic necessities such as groceries and/or prescriptions.https://t.co/Mx30f0MwoQ
— Lynnwood Times (@LynnwoodTimes) May 13, 2020
“There’s no death penalty in Washington state for murder,” tweeted civil liberties lawyer Eric Rhein.
“Now [Governor Inslee] is claiming authority to slowly starve you if you don’t conform,” added Rhein. “Without trial.”
There’s no death penalty in Washington state for murder. Now he’s claiming authority to slowly starve you if you don’t conform. Without trial.
— Eric Rhein (@RheinEsq) May 13, 2020
Scary stuff. so you will be under house arrest without due process. nothing illegal there.
— Nick Cultrara (@bflony66) May 13, 2020
‘Box in the virus’
“This initiative is robust, it is vigorous and it is comprehensive, and it needs to be all three to be all three of those to succeed,” said Inslee in a video conference.
He noted that the initiative will be “on a much grander scale” than similar past initiatives which traced the relationships and personal interactions of individuals with infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and hepatitis. He did not mention HIV/AIDS.
“If we do not succeed in this second stage of our efforts, this virus could come right back out and bite us,” asserted Inslee.
While social distancing was the primary tactic employed to slow the spread of the virus during the early days of the pandemic, Inslee said that as the state moves to open up the economy, “testing, contact tracing, and isolation of people who are infected,” will now the become major tools of government authorities.
During his presentation, Inslee incorporated a series of graphics to illustrate aspects of the new phase.
Inslee said the goal is to “box in the virus.”
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