Thursday, August 13, 2020

Trust Crisis

Florida contact tracers complain that no one trusts them enough to give them information. It could be that people read stories like these:

Couple under house arrest

Florida couple jailed for breaking coronavirus quarantine

and they don't want to risk having some government official lock them in their homes upon penalty of being locked in jail.

It could be that they lied about the masks. Or people who were shot or died in motorcycle accidents being classified as COVID. Or nurses who claim they are overwhelmed while filming TikTok videos of them doing choreographed dance routines.

As Glen Reynolds said:

WHEN THEY LIED ABOUT THE MASKS, THEY POISONED THE TRUST WELL. WHEN THEY GAVE THE BLM RALLIES THEIR SEAL OF APPROVAL, THEY SHAT IN IT. Contact Tracing Is Having a Trust Crisis. Nobody trusts the tech companies, either, for similar reasons. When you lie and cheat, people don’t trust you.
At this late date, contact tracing is largely pointless anyway. It might have mattered in February and early March, but the CDC made sure there weren’t enough tests.

1 comment:

Jonathan H said...

Many public authorities, including but not limited to public health authorities, have misused their titles and positions to make arguments from authority on a variety of subjects that were not critical to those positions or the public they are supposed to be serving... they eroded the public trust in what they do, showing that they were willing to use their positions for political and social positions, and now that a (potentially) critical situation is here, people aren't listening or as you say don't trust them...
Additionally, they have shown to be wrong in the past and don't admit it, and they don't shown an appreciation for the costs of their actions - for example, what public health authority has said that they know these measures are painful for many people?
These are NOT new problems, we are just seeing the issue more starkly here.