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Federal Bill Proposes COVID–19 Testing, Tracing and Quarantine of Americans

contact tracing

July 4, 2020 marks the 244th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. With much of the country still shut down, large gatherings banned and “non-essential” businesses closed with required masking indoors and outdoors in some states, it is hard to imagine firework displays, neighborhood barbeques and other annual Independence Day traditions being held.

A new bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives several months ago is another example of attempts to restrict and even eliminate civil liberties that are described in the Declaration of Independence and outlined in the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution. Under the guise of “protecting” Americans from being infected with COVID-19, Representative Bobby Rush (D-IL) introduced H.B. 6666 in the Committee on Energy and Commerce on May 1, 2020 to authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), acting through the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), to award federal grants to states, non-governmental organizations and other eligible entities to conduct COVID–19 diagnostic testing on Americans, including in their homes, and quarantine them in their homes or elsewhere, if necessary,

$100B Proposed to Test, Trace, Quarantine COVID-19 Infected Americans

The bill authorizes the allocation of 100 billion dollars of federal funds this year and unlimited amounts in future years to create a massive national electronic surveillance, testing, tracing and quarantine enforcement system. The funds will be used by states and other approved organizations and entities to hire “contact tracers,” who will test, trace and monitor the contacts of individuals testing positive for COVID-19. Mobile health units will be used to test Americans in their homes, if necessary.

Entities eligible to receive federal funding include federally qualified health centers, school-based health clinics, disproportionate share hospitals, academic medical centers, nonprofit organizations, universities and other educational institutions,, high schools, and any other type of authorized entity as determined by the HHS Secretary. Priority will be given to applicants in COVID-19 “hot spots,” medically underserviced communities and to entities that hire residents of the community it serves. The federal funds can be used to hire, train, compensate, and pay the expenses of those doing the testing and monitoring of Americans and to purchase personal protective equipment and other supplies.

H.R. 6666 was touted as a bipartisan effort, however the one Republican co-sponsor, Rep. Van Drew, Jefferson (R-NJ) withdrew his support.

According to a press release from the bill’s sponsor, Congressman Rush:

Reopening our economy and getting back to normal will be all but impossible if we do not step up our testing efforts and implement robust and widespread contact tracing. Until we have a vaccine to defeat this dreaded disease, contact tracing in order to understand the full breadth and depth of the spread of this virus is the only way we will be able to get out from under this.

The Bill of Rights Cannot Be Suspended During A “Public Health Crisis”

H.R. 6666 would provide federal grants to entities whose primary purpose would be to trace, monitor, test, and support the quarantine of healthy people who may have come into contact with COVID-19 positive individuals. Tracking down, testing and supporting the involuntary confinement of healthy people in their homes is a violation of privacy and other civil liberties set forth in the Bill of Rights, the first 10 Amendments to the U.S. Constitution designed to protect individual liberty and limit the power of the government.1 2

The U.S. Constitution is the “Supreme law of the land” and the Bill of Rights cannot be set aside by federal or state governments during pandemics or other public health emergencies.3

This fact was acknowledged by the U.S. government in The United States Statement of Interest in Support of Plaintiffs filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in a case4 last month in which members of a church attending a drive-in sermon were issued citations for violating an executive order5 in Mississippi. The DOJ stated;

There is no pandemic exception, however, to the fundamental liberties the Constitution safeguards. Indeed, “individual rights secured by the Constitution do not disappear during a public health crisis.” In re Abbott, — F.3d —, 2020 WL 1685929, at *6 (5th Cir. Apr. 7, 2020). These individual rights, including the protections in the Bill of Rights made applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment, are always in force and restrain government action.6 (emphasis added)

H.R. 6666 appears to violate the 4th, 5th, 8th and 9th Amendments of the Constitution by providing government funding to government and private entities for the creation and implementation of programs that would trace, test, monitor and support the potential involuntary quarantine of healthy people who may have come into contact with a COVID-19 infected person, whether or not they are exhibiting symptoms or may be immune to the virus without the consent of those being detained.

The bill may violate the 4th Amendment right of American citizens to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures.7 H.R. 6666 does not appear to preserve a citizen’s right to be safe in their home free from warrantless government intrusion and monitoring, nor does it provide for the voluntary undertaking of medical testing. The bill also does not set forth how the contacts of persons with COVID-19 will be traced and whether the Constitutional rights of those infected with COVID-19, as well as their contacts, will be upheld.

The bill may violate the 5th Amendment, which guarantees that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.8 It appears that under the proposed law, quarantined healthy citizens could be denied the right to work, travel or otherwise go about their business without due process of the law.

H.R. 6666 may also violate the 8th Amendment prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment.9 Monitoring healthy people and requiring them to stay home, restricting their right to work and travel, for what would likely be a fourteen (14) day quarantine because they or their mobile phone was in the same area as a COVID-19 positive person, could be deemed cruel and unusual punishment.

Finally, the proposed legislation bill appears to violate the 9th Amendment, which bestows upon the people all of the rights not specifically set forth in the Constitution.10 It provides federal funding for entities to create and implement undefined “related activities” to COVID-19 testing and unnamed “other purposes.” Because H.R. 6666 is so broadly written and has no pre-set end date, there is simply no way to know what and how many inalienable rights may be infringed upon or taken away from citizens in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

H.R. 6666 Creates A Slippery Slope

The federal funding of entities to develop and implement a surveillance operation that would force the testing and tracking of healthy individuals creates slippery slope that threatens civil liberties and violations of fundamental rights essential to our constitutional republic, in which legislators elected by a majority are supposed to pass laws that equally protect the constitutional rights of all citizens, the majority and minority alike.

H.R. 6666 lacks the safeguards and conditions necessary to ensure that surveillance operations and data collections would not be used by local, state and federal governments and private businesses to force the involuntary testing, monitoring and quarantining of healthy people or for other undisclosed purposes.

This unconstrained display of federal power could lead to the removal of civil liberties, such as the right to appear in public spaces and travel; the right to employment and education; the right to participate in government-funded services, and the right to receive care in a government funded hospital or other medical facility.

Representative Rush stated that under this bill, testing would be voluntary and that it, “does not authorize anyone to enter your home, for whatever reason, without your permission, nor does it allow the government to remove anyone from your home because of the coronavirus.”11

However, there does not appear to be any language in the proposed bill that protects these rights. And, the bill provides no assurance that the federally funded surveillance programs will not be mandated in the future by federal, state or local governments, employers or other entities.

Disguised Massive Government Surveillance Program

Representative Rush posted on Twitter that, “There is nothing in this bill that will threaten anyone’s individual liberties.12

Critics disagree, however. A Washington, DC journalist commented;

This is nothing but a massive government surveillance program cloaked in a cure-the-coronavirus label… H.R. 6666 takes COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, and turns it into a mass surveillance authority for government against society. And it does it deceptively so, under the guise of providing a societal good.13

The bill is vague and overreaching as it grants the Secretary of HHS the unchecked authority to determine what type of entity would qualify for funding and allows for unspecified medical surveillance. It does not define “related activities” or “other purposes” and has no set end date.

There are no limits placed on the use of the information collected by these government funded entities. The information gathered while testing, tracking and monitoring citizens could be stored in a government database and potentially be used for any purpose including forced vaccination.

Government Officials Meeting with Silicon Valley

The introduction of H.R. 6666 is not the first attempt by the federal government to incentivize private companies to create a surveillance system in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The White House has been holding private talks with technology companies and social media giants such as Facebook and Goggle in an effort to track the spread of corona virus through the implementation of digital contract tracing applications (DCT) using location data from mobile phones for public health surveillance.14 15

Although DCT apps would track and monitor citizens using their mobile phones, government sources contend that privacy would not be a concern as the electronic data would be collected anonymously in aggregate form and maintain that the government is not looking to build a database.16

The creation of a large government database is concerning because the personal information stored on it could be at risk for being used for a number of purposes, including those that are unrelated to COVID-19. Large databases are also vulnerable to breech by identity thieves, foreign governments and stalkers.17

Cell Phones to Track Users Health and COVID-19 Status

In response to these White House talks, on Apr.10, 2010, Apple and Google announced they were undertaking a joint effort to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 using Bluetooth technology to build a platform that would support DCT apps.18 The technology will be built into the framework of mobile devises and will allow DCT apps, once developed and downloaded by the user, to notify individuals if their phone was in close proximity of an individual who tested positive for COVID-19.19 Apple and Google emphasize that user privacy will be maintained as data locations will be stored on the user’s own phone rather than collected and stored on a centralized database.20

This surveillance technology hardly seems voluntary as it will automatically be installed on mobile phones when they are updated “to help ensure broad adoption.”21 However, Apple and Google claim that that, even though the software will automatically install on user’s phones without their consent, users will be in control by having the option of turning the technology on and off or uninstalling the technology altogether, and will have the choice to install DCT apps on their phone.22 23

Even if the user does have some control over this technology and the DCT apps it supports for now, it is easy to imagine a scenario where employers, businesses, restaurants, stores and other places require the use of this technology in the near future. In fact, technology companies are already developing apps that would allow employers to digitally track and trace their employees.24

In addition to privacy concerns, there is no certainty that DCT apps will work to control the spread of COVID-19. DCT apps may prove over-inclusive and cause self-isolation burn-out when a healthy person is directed multiple times to self-quarantine after a number of quick or fleeting exposures that are unlikely to cause transmission of the virus and may be under-inclusive in that it will not alert individuals that they may have touched a surface that a COVID-19 infected person touched hours earlier.25

First, app notifications of contact with COVID-19 are likely to be simultaneously both over- and under-inclusive. Experts in several disciplines have shown why mobile phones and their sensors make for imperfect proxies for coronavirus exposure. False positives (reports of exposure when none existed) can arise easily. Individuals may be flagged as having contacted one another despite very low possibility of transmission—such as when the individuals are separated by walls porous enough for a Bluetooth signal to penetrate. Nor do the systems account for when individuals take precautions, such as the use of personal protective equipment, in their interactions with others.26

In order to be effective, approximately 60% of the population must participate in digital contract tracing. However, almost 60 percent of respondents to a recent Washington Post-University of Maryland poll said they would refuse to participate in digital contact tracing due to privacy concerns or technological hurdles.27 With the majority of Americans hesitant or unwilling to consent to using DCT apps, the question remains: will Congress pass H.R. 6666 and the federal government violate our civil liberties by mandating that all Americans participate in digital contact tracing in order to justify its one hundred billion dollar plus price tag?


References:

1 The Bill of Rights.
2 Bill of Rights. Encyclopedia Britannica. Mar. 24, 2020.
3 Article V1 of the United States Constitution.
4 Wells P. Church Sues Mississippi City For Breaking up ‘Drive-In’ Service. Bloomberg Law Apr. 10, 2020.
5 Mayor and Greenville City Council Issue Orders on Church Services and City Curfew. Apr. 7, 2020.
6 Wilson T. Compulsory Digital Contact Tracing Is Probably Legal, but Still Sub-Optimal. Jurist.org Apr. 26, 2020.
7 U.S. Constitution- Amendment 4.
8 U.S. Constitution- Amendment 5.
9 U.S. Constitution- Amendment 8.
10 U.S. Constitution- Amendment 9.
11 Bleau, Hanna. Democrats Push ‘Devil’ Coronavirus Bill H.R. 6666, ‘Door-to-Door’ Contract Tracing. Breitbart May 12, 2020.
12 Ibid.
13 Chumley CK. H.R. 6666 a devil of a COVID-19 government surveillance plot. The Washington Times May 12, 2020.
14 Valentino-DeVries J. Translating a Surveillance Tool into a Virus Tracker for Democracies. The New York Times Mar. 19, 2020.
15 Romm T, Dwoskin E, Timberg C. U.S. government, tech industry discussing ways to use smartphone location data to combat coronavirus. The Washington Post Mar. 17, 2020.
16 Ibid.
17 Schwartz A. How EFF Evaluates Government Demands for New Surveillance Powers. Electronic Frontier Foundation Apr. 3, 2020.
18 Privacy-Preserving Contact Tracing. Apple.com.
19 Hussain S. Apple and Google won’t solve coronavirus contact tracing. Here’s what will. Los Angeles Times May 1, 2020.
20 Setzer E. Contract-Tracing Apps in the United States. LawFare May 15, 2020.
21 Ibid.
22 Exposure Notification. Apple/Google April 2020.
23 Ibid.
24 See Footnote 20.
25 Soltani A, Calo R, Bergstrom C. Contact-tracing apps are not a solution to the COVD-19 crisis. TechStream Apr. 27, 2010.
26 Ibid.
27 Footnote 19.

33 Responses

  1. Plandemic. Massive government surveillance. Liberties vanishing. Unbelievable travesty thrust upon the American people. People need to wake up and say “no.”

    1. I couldn’t have said it any better this is but a test of how compliant we will be to the over reach of government and so far we are failing. We no longer question authority or science; they can’t even defeat the 1918 flu what makes anyone think they can defeat the Wuhan flu.

    1. Thanks for the info Megan! I knew of HR6666 and signed a petition against it but not about the others.

    2. Thanks for the info Megan! I knew about HR6666 and signed a petition against it but I didn’t know about the others! Thanks!

  2. All this for the BIGGEST SCAM in human history. Our politicians are worthless scum – both parties.
    We must call, fax, write and show up in masses to any “Town-hall” events and tell our representatives, “If you vote in favor of this, we vote you out of office- PERIOD!” This is the agenda by Marxist totalitarian elite to bend our will and rule over us. It’s about time We-The-People remind elected officials who they work for – and it isn’t George Soros or the former PIMP in the WH. Unless enough people wake the hell up this country will be Venezuela 2.0. As for so-called “conservatives” get off your a$$es and demand the TRUTH and demand your representative listen to YOU. Get off your a$$es and vote out the weak, pathetic, passive gutless cowardly GOP who’s only interests are their own. For God’s Sake wake up.

  3. EVERYONE needs to CALL their Representative & Senator to oppose this bill now! Flood the lines; do not wait. News flash : all 54 members sponsoring this are Democrats! Somebody needs to educate them.

    1. I am buying a very simple flip phone with no GPS or wifi, it’s not Android or Apple, no app store, can’t download apps, minimal internet and all it does is text/call. Time to do things my way and keep off the grid.

  4. Amazing article!! I can’t speak for all Americans, but of my friends and family not one of them has said they would allow to be contact traced. Most of the social media posts from friends and family, as of late, are about how to delete or turn off any type of built in tracing service’s on our phones. Good work!!

  5. Still no reference to clinics, hospitals and doctors using IV
    vitamin C drips and oral vitamin C for virus and bacterial infections. See Riordan Clinic.

    1. Sadly no, Carl. I heard and saw experts in January sharing how the Chinese were healing people with Vitamin C and all the info was censored.

  6. Well, you had better tell all the city, state and federal governments to stop telling people how to drive their cars, to not drink and drive, to not put on a seat belt, to get auto insurance or be fined. Van Drew Jefferson is a Republican idiot. The US government has always made laws to protect the American people. That means to protect them from each other. There are people that will not follow the specific rules the doctors mention that will save people/s lives. I do not want someone else to cause my death. Wake up and behave yourselves, if not for strangers, then for your family and friends.

    1. You’d be one of the passive masses that allowed hitler to drag millions of Jews out of their homes, robbed and gassed
      Wake up.

  7. I will do what it takes to fight this craziness. And if I can’t…Well I don’t need a cell phone with me at all times anyway. Leave it at home and go about your business I say. The cell phone is an addiction that will cause you to lose your freedom. Be well Stay well and always Be safe

  8. I won’t, I’ll just leave my phone at home if needed or start using burner phones. The government should start suggesting vitamin D testing across the board, that would make the death rate plummet. 96% of people that die of COVID are vitamin D deficient. Here’s an excellent resource that every physician, dietitian/nutritionist should have in their possession. http://imjournal.com/oa/evidence_supporting-a_phased_immuno-physiological_approach_to_covid-19_from_prevention_through_recovery/

    1. With everybody locked in their homes for three months, many peoples Vit D would be low. especially after the winter. Notice how the sun came out at the very start of ‘the lockdown yet previously was dismal. Low vitamin D is found in so many known medical conditions (eg dementia, arthritis, parkinson’s etc) yet unacknowledged by the medical profession . . . it surprisingly isn’t in their training. Nor is the importance of good nutrition which is the cornerstone of health, that’d be a great way to help people . Its not rocket science, but common sense, no safety trials needed and no side effects.

  9. This bill is very concerning, but even more interesting is the number of the bill which bares an ominous correlation to Revelations 13:18 – 666 Number of the beast!

  10. Incredibly informative article … one of the BEST! So reassuring to know that a Judge, Carolyn Hendler, had the foresight and courage to challenge the insidious H.B. 6666! Seriously, actually using the “666+6” as its namesake. Anyone with a minuscule amount of awareness, should see this for what it is. Come on people of the US/World … WAKE UP! Thank you Judge Hendler for your immediate attention to this matter to inform, at least, the people that NEED and seek to hear this message.

    I realize that there are other “parties of interest” that also align with Judge Hendler’s viewpoints and this is also reassuring. There truly is power in numbers. God speed and God bless us all that TRUTH shall prevail! THANK YOU!

  11. I am ready to fight the bill, I have already signed a petition against this Bill ,we need to take all of this before a judge!!!

  12. Good God folks, this is not 1984, this is how you get rid of COVID without a vaccine (don’t you want to do that?). This is how Ebola was contained and how Iceland has managed to get rid of COVID and reopen without masks. This article simply speculates that the govt will use tracing to overreach. Glad the conversation about civil liberties is happening, but don’t oppose the bill, just ensure the tracers uphold people’s liberties. US has had a small percentage of the restrictions placed on folks in Europe and elsewhere and everyone is up on arms that a mask is just asking too GD much!!! Wonder why our cases are rising in most States while the rest of world gets it contained?!?! Don’t read the news if you don’t trust it, just call someone in another country and get out of your American bubble.

  13. Americans don’t have the necessary morality or a thorough and accurate knowledge of the Constitution or the un-revised knowledge of true American history to be effective leaders that our country desperately need. In my humble but informed opinion, we have already past the point of no return, unless we turn back to God and repent of our doing our own thing, and look to our creator, we have lost our country.

  14. I did not have an option about the phone update. It stated that if I did not restart my phone that it would be restarted for me with a date and time.
    I am totally against the tracking bill. I don’t care to have any more of my civil rights violated.

  15. BRIAN, USE VIT D3 & THERAPEUTIC DOSES OF INTRAVENOUS VIT C – PROVEN treatments for Polio and other infections etc., and there is a reason for that and NOT ONE of your public officials has mentioned it, the same as there is no acknowledgement of making and keeping ones Immune system healthy. N o, now you have Gates Esq putting artificial meats out there, and he owns many shares in Brazilian McDonalds etc., and how many of his cohorts do too? and now 2 employees of his are coming forth with artificial Breast milk???? they do not even know how the body works internally, and have made a total mess of peoples – children’s lives with their vaccines in India, Philippines’ and many other places. And of course we have your Ancel Keyes Diet, a Researcher whose son found Daddy’s’ papers in his attic about 4 years ago and the proof, that has caused so many illnesses as that Researcher merely looked at other Countries and promoted a food(s) that was a major in their diets, but did not even THINK that it might be a mix of what else they ate in the individual countries that could temper the food they were ingesting. (Balance out). So the World was given a “Food Pyramid” You yanks ALWAYS change things, even words – it never stops and the World is so weary of your gross mistakes and now our health.

    How can you ignore the evidence of the dramatic increase of Autism in your Country especially and child deaths and lower life span??????

    Americans as a Nation MUST take responsibility for the gross errors that you have foisted upon the World as people did trust organisations and people in positions of responsibility and even though Education is widespread now, there is gross irresponsibility from your top organisations/people and that cascades down and permeates your Society, a Society that Worships’ the Almighty $$$$$. Everyone seems to write a book and the propaganda that accompanies books and everything else. Look at the wording of whatever comes out of USA, and the claims made with little to NO backup of those claims/statements!!

    Your Vaccines started in 1930 and never proved fully and have never worked fully, and despite the 1930 launching of Flu Vaccines that at that time were declared to give a lifetime of protection to a person.

    The reactionary nature of Americans’ instead of quite deep well thought out reasons and research, then action is unbelievable, NO its not, no one believes the Yanks now.

    I am NOT American and refuse to even visit your Country – enough on TV. seen Documentaries showing the natural beauty. My son did offer me say 25 years ago a trip with accommodation and car while he was in New York re his work – I said NO thank you and yet I love travel.

    I think if I heard a “pop” sound I would drop to the floor, there is so much violence in your Country and TV & Films.

    Many people throughout the World BLAME USA for the Auto Immune disorders, the Autistic children, the GMO, the incredible amount of Metals in their body’s’ – I was born and raised in Australia and yet I have incredible amounts of metals etc in my system, as a Brussels Endocrinologist who tested this area of me said “we all have it now”. I lived an extremely healthy life in Australia and until 1987 had not been out of Australia. Main area of travel was living in Japan where the food is even better than the Mediterranean Diet. I now CHOOSE to be in Italy, where they do NOT follow the American ways – they are a very intelligent race!!

    I never believe anything that comes out of your CDC or FDA, and have not since acquiring this Auto Immune disorder which I successfully was finally FORCED to self-diagnose and self-treat and NOT with Big Pharma.

    AMERICANS,, get active and DEMAND answers from your President down, and take ACTION to remove the pathetic dribble you have in positions of power!!! should have been done 35++ years ago.

    And get a COMPLETE overhaul of your LEGAL system. Even the CDC having a “Foundation” – presume this is what Fauci siphoned funds through to China??

    I read yesterday that ROUNDUP is still to be available on the shelves. WHAT sort of LEGAL system. laws and idiots in your Country promulgating such madness???

    D R

    1. Amen to all that. Americans are sitting on there high horses, never questioned anything they are doing. You are so right with everything.

  16. Looks like we have a couple of undercover federal agents posing as “innocent” trolls in the comments section. The government does not care about us or any human beings but those at the top. Any government that can kill half a million women and children in a baseless war and justify it as “worth the cost” NEVER has the best interests of humans when it creates mass surveillance systems. Sadly, some people don’t know the difference between a virus and a bacteria, which is why such ignorance has led to terrible overreaching in government this year.

  17. A family member was going to be tested with the Joysbio Blood test from China. . I wanted to confirm it was an approved blood test. I searched the FDA website to confirm. It was not listed so I called the FDA. They said email the info. I did. The first answer was we don’t approve every brand of test kit. I sent questions back to them and then they responded with the notice Joysbio is NOT APPROVED.
    The blood test requires a pin prick with a sterile devise. If sterility is not confirmed by the FDA, then who is responsible? These kits come from China where the virus originated in Wuhan. A horrible thought came to me. What if the test kits are contaminated with Covid-19 and are the cause of the continued increase in Covid-19 cases because there are NO CONTROLS on making sure the kits are sterile, not contaminated with Covid-19 and accurate and no false positives.!
    Last reported : 35 test kits approved and 50 which did not include Joysbio are NOT APPROVED but are being used for what reason. Since only 2 to 3% of the population is at risk it ,makes no sense but driving up the fear factor.
    The current Covid-19 crisis is being used as a vehicle for creating legislation to mandate mandatory medical procedures under the disguise of being for the health and benefit of the American public.

  18. Cases rising is good…eventually herd immunity will kick in.

    Rest of the world has it contained? How about China doing another lock down? Lock downs just delay the inevitable.

    It was to be expected that cases/hospitalizations/deaths would rise once the lock down was relaxed. Flatten the curve was supposed to keep hospitals from being overwhelmed, and from everything I have read, it worked except maybe for states with high cases, like New York.

    I’m getting tired of all the media hoopla about cases rising, I am not going to be concerned until hospitals start having ICUs filled to the brim with COVID cases, and that has not yet happened anywhere.

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