Analysis/Opinion
As U.S. residents begin heading back to the work and scientists begin to explore more treatments for COVID-19, questions about privacy and freedom have come to the forefront of many people’s minds.
Just under a month ago, the World Health Organization, which is primarily funded by Bill Gates himself and not an equal coalition of countries as the name suggests, found itself under a bit of scrutiny as one its top officials advised removing people from their homes, even if they were only suspected of being sick.
Now, the health powers that be are ratcheting up their campaigns, going door-to-door in Atlanta, Georgia to conduct a series of random tests you may want to know about.
The teams will question individuals, and request blood samples from 420 randomly selected households spanning 30 census blocks, gathering data to see who has been infected by the coronavirus. For now, the participation is voluntary.
According to a report from CNN, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — which is headquartered in Atlanta — has partnered with the Georgia Department of Public Health and the local boards of health in Fulton and Dekalb counties to conduct a survey of randomly selected homes.
Residents who choose to participate are asked to provide a blood sample for a coronavirus antibody test and to answer some questions about their medical history and possible exposure, the state’s Department of Public Health said in a news release.
Health workers conducting the survey have CDC vests and badges, the news release said, and are carrying a letter from the CDC and the Georgia Department of Public Health.
Participation in the survey, which started Tuesday and runs through May 4, is voluntary.
“We encourage everyone who is visited by the teams to participate in this very important survey that can help public health officials assess how widespread Covid-19 is in certain areas,” Georgia Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Kathleen Toomey said in a statement. “This is another way that Georgians can play a role in helping fight this virus.”
Antibody tests, also known as serology tests, do not identify an active infection. Instead, they detect antibodies in the immune system that fight off the virus.
The presence of antibodies would indicate a person was exposed to the virus and could be protected from re-infection — though it’s still unclear how strong that immunity might be or how long it would last.
Such tests are seen as key to rolling back social distancing because they give public health officials an idea of how widely the virus has spread.
“This survey will help provide us with very important information to help assess how widespread the virus is in the community and determine factors associated with infection,” said Kate Fowlie, a spokeswoman for the CDC.
The information gathered in the survey will also inform public health officials’ strategies to prevent spread in the future, Fowlie added.
Informed consent or implied consent?
While the voluntary nature of the tests is worth noting, it’s also important to note just how up-close-and-personal this whole coronavirus situation has suddenly become.
Recently Bill Gates, who is the top funder of the WHO and a funder of the CDC, said that essentially the entire world will need to be vaccinated before life can get back to normal. Gates has been given a free pass in the media to push his own version of health, and yet no one has held his bold claims up to scrutiny.
Considering that the WHO is also the same group that announced earlier that they “need” to remove those who “may” be sick from their homes, as mentioned earlier, you can start to see what a slippery slope this could potentially become if left unchecked.
A few additional questions to ask: Does a knock on your door imply that you have a choice? If the CDC wanted volunteers why wouldn’t they just ask for more volunteers? And is it possible that the CDC is acquainting people with the notion of someone knocking on their door in order to get people used to the idea of having their privacy invaded?
These are the questions we need to be asking ourselves as this situation continues to unfold in the coming months, and perhaps even years.
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About Katie Preece
