What Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer doesn’t seem to understand about nationwide “contact tracing” for the coronavirus is that people don’t want it. (Nor do they need it, but that’s a different subject.)
It’s not a popular thing. And yet Schumer thought he nailed it on Monday when he tweeted, “If President Trump is making daily testing and contact tracing available or required for his own staff at the White House, why is he still refusing to do it for the country?”
If President Trump is making daily testing and contact tracing available or required for his own staff at the White House, why is he still refusing to do it for the country?
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) May 11, 2020
Great syllogism, Schumer! Here’s a couple more he might try:
If President Trump is making his own staff at the White House work 18-hour days, why is he still refusing to do it for the country?
If President Trump is making his own staff at the White House answer his phone calls at 4 a.m., why is he still refusing to do it for the country?
I get that Schumer is trying to accuse Trump of engaging in some kind of elite hypocrisy when the White House announced that all staff would have to follow new health protocols in light of news that at least two people in the building had tested positive for COVID-19.
But comparisons like that only work when the supposedly hypocritical person is getting some kind of great benefit to the detriment of others.
People seem to be catching on that not only does testing and contact tracing do virtually nothing to slow the spread of the virus, but that it’s also a pain in the butt for very little, if any, personal benefit.
We’re never going to have testing and tracing for the whole country, even as Democrats and liberals in the media demand that it be done before we make any moves to resume normal business or open restaurants and bars and schools. Even if we did, what would be the purpose when there is still no treatment or vaccine on the market that has proven to work more or less as a cure?
A new Axios poll showed that at most, just half the country is unopposed to using a contact tracing system set up by the federal government. The only way tracing works is if everyone does it.
I suspect that when the half that is unopposed finds out that tracing means the government knows every person you come into close contact with (and more!), the number of people who are OK with the idea probably drops closer to “get the heck out of here.”
The next time Schumer wants to make a point about contact tracing, he should remember that it’s not something people are racing to be a part of.
