Part One:
DO WE REALLY KNOW WHAT “CONTACT TRACING” MEANS?
We discuss contact tracing with Caroline Chen, who covers health care for ProPublica. Public officials talk about it. We all see the words in the media. But do we know what “contact tracing” really means, and what its repercussions are? Chen explains the basics to us.
When medical providers diagnose a person with COVID-19, they prescribe a period of isolation (as well as bedrest, medication, etc.). We keep them away from other people, so they don’t infect those other people. The CDC asks people to isolate themselves from other people, including: not sharing bathrooms or living space, not coming in direct contact with others, sanitizing any surfaces you touch before other people touch them, and not sharing meals or utensils.
But many of us – who have not ourselves been diagnosed with COVID – have been *in contact* with other people but we don’t know whether those folks are or are not carrying the virus. We don’t remember every person with whom we’ve had contact recently; we don’t know what everyone’s COVID status is; we have no idea who other folks have been spending time with or whether they’ve followed public health recommen-dations; and so we cannot be sure who among us is or is not unknowingly carrying the virus (which we might communicate to lots of additional people and make them ill).
Contact tracing is a way for public health officials to have more accurate information on exactly these kinds of uncertainties. They look at folks who might have been unwittingly exposed to COVID; they trace back as many of the places where folks may have had contact with the virus and as many people who may have communicated the virus to us.
Eg, you may have stayed at a hotel recently or returned from traveling. You may have gone to a bar or a football game, a birthday party or pool party. At any of these events, you could have been in contact with people who were carrying COVID, and they might have communicated the virus to you. If that is the case, public health officials need you to quarantine yourself for 14 days. During that time, doctors can see if you catch COVID yourself. If you do not, and doctors can be sure that you have not become a carrier (even an asymptomatic one) – then you can return to public life and know that you’re not going to give other people the disease.
If instead you do come down with the virus, you need to isolate yourself until you recuperate, and are no longer contagious. Doctors must be confident that you will not be able to contaminate anyone else before you can return to the community.
The reason is simple: If you carry the disease and you nevertheless expose yourself to the general public, this can significantly increase the number of people who get the virus. That is how the virus numbers spike over and over again. That is how people die.
Every health dept performs these determinations on a case-by-case basis. Specific requirements vary from state to state. Many states are in the process of hiring thousands of contact tracers in an effort to curb the spread of coronavirus.
Public health experts are hoping to move our society toward a situation where we have 10% of the people stay home so 90% can go to work, instead of what we have now with 90% of the people staying home in order to avoid COVID-19.
Part Two:
THE SCARY SECRET WORKINGS OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.
We speak with David Moore, co-founder of Sludge.com, about the inner workings of the Democratic Party. Who knew that things were this bad? It turns out that the Democratic Party is run by a group of secret elites, who make and change party policy without benefit of elections or any public input. They control platforms, processes, and people in a way that bears no resemblance to an open democracy.
The Democratic presidential nominee picks the party chair, and the party chair then controls virtually everything else. S/he [who are we kidding? – He] establishes the party’s “governmental” structure, including committees; he appoints cronies and Wall Street donors to positions of power; and controls the party agenda. Did we mention finances (deciding where to invest the party’s mountain of money)?
For example, during the 2020 primary season, many voters and many candidates wanted to have a debate focused solely on climate change. Yes because the issue is both existential and urgent. Party Chairman Tom Perez quickly shut that down. He gathered the Party “Resolutions Committee” which voted 17-8 against a climate debate. 10 of the 17 “no” votes had been directly appointed by Perez. Others were lobbyists or business tycoons in the oil and gas industry. One was the “government affairs” VP for Newscorp, the Murdoch–owned company which used to own Fox News! (Yes, this was the Democratic Party, not the Republicans.)
WHAT HAPPENED TO DEMOCRACY WITH A SMALL “D”?
After the 2016 election and the scandal involving Democratic super-delegates potentially overriding the votes of the people, the Party convened a so-called “Unity Reform Commission.” After much discussion – non-public, of course – the commission agreed that super-delegates would not get to vote at the 2020 convention – but only on the **first ballot** (or if one candidate already had more than enough delegates to win). The media were so focused on the seemingly salutary super-delegate issue that they didn’t notice that the Party’s “reform commission” had rejected every other idea to increase democracy/fairness/transparency that the reform advocates had proposed. And even the super-delegate first-ballot improvement measure has not yet been enshrined in the DNC charter, as of May 27, 2020.
Who will Joe Biden appoint to chair the Party? What will he say on the issue of transparency vs secrecy? Will he advocate any (small “d”) democratic reforms of his Party’s apparatus, so maybe in 2024 the Party can stand for both a small d and a capital D?
