Bill Meyer
Lohman
Dear Editor:
We are being constantly bombarded with facts that do nothing but instill fear. Unless identified as a hotspot, I believe broad community testing is a major waste of money that also feeds the rapidly growing panic. This fear is what drives people to wait in their cars for hours just to be tested.
It is my opinion that once it is determined that an emergency pandemic exists we must throw out any individual privacy concerns about the pandemic. This is especially important when tracing determines that it is possible that an unknown person could have been exposed. At that time specific location information must be made public. Maybe then the ensuing fear-driven panic can be avoided.
What is really needed is information that tells how new infections are being identified. It is important to know if possible infections are traced to a particular business (i.e., meat processing plant, etc.), church, store, restaurant, etc. Simply reporting county-level data does nothing but instill fear in most people because we don't know if the reported new infection is directly associated with someone previously infected such as a family member or co-worker. I don't know if the infection has been traced to someone next door or someone 25 miles away in another town. It is possible to manage your fear when you have this level of useful information.