Contact tracing: misinformation and politicization

A sign at Manhattan Beach Pier advises residents to wear face coverings during the COVID-19 pandemic. September 3, 2020. Photo by Amy Ta/KCRW

In some parts of California and the U.S., there’s a deep level of mistrust toward contact tracers. “You have all these wild things going around the internet about how contact tracing is a scheme to take away people’s guns, or that they’re going to put cameras outside your homes to make sure you’re quarantining, or they’re going to come and force you to be tested and take you away if you test positive. All of these completely false things,” says Alice Miranda Ollstein, health care reporter for Politico.