BY: CLAIRE KIM
For a country so adamantly critical of China’s Credit System, calling it out as a modern rendition of “Big Brother” from George Orwell’s 1984 novel, the Trump Administration should be ashamed of their decision to collect all “COVID-19 patient information in a central database in Washington” BYPASSING the CDC. (New York Times) How hypocritical…
Under such circumstances, what happens to our legal right to privacy? As humans, we get sensitive about even the smallest numbers or health screening results at our local doctor’s offices.
Our weight? Don’t tell anyone.
Our height? Keep it between you (the doctor) and me.
Our waist size? The list goes on and on…
It’s natural to be a little conserved when talking about health-related matters. Bare and measured, we are at our most vulnerable state physically, and opening up can, at times, be a little, if not, terribly overwhelming. So, what makes the Trump Administration think it’s a good, or, at least, sensible idea to demand all patients checked for the coronavirus to unwillingly send their results to the Trump Administration, a group who, from the past few months, have shown highly incompetent behavior? Who are they to evaluate the progression of the pandemic? What gives them the right to use our information, breaking our right to privacy, if they can’t be transparent in the media or press conferences about the pandemic, pointing fingers at political parties instead of focusing on overcoming this health crisis?
With this policy in place, we as citizens are losing our rights, and political parties are winning in their political campaigns. How messed up is that?
This pandemic is not a playground to mess around in. It isn’t an opportunity to twist the situation in your favor as a part of your political campaigns, disregarding the millions of cases confirmed in the US. Politicizing the pandemic in hopes of boosting your chances of winning the November election is absolutely ridiculous and messed up on your part as our ELECTED president. How hard is it to be humble and care about the citizens who have worked hours and hours to maintain the economic boom that you’re so deeply concerned about? Representatives alongside President Trump, how come you aren’t hearing our calls for justice, our calls for survival?
What makes the situation even more frustrating is the fact that this direct retrieval of information by the Trump Administration, as mentioned above, BYPASSES the CDC, the US national public institute that curates more qualified experts than that of the Trump Administration as a whole. As stated by the New York Times, “the Health and Human Services database that will receive new information is not open to the public, which could affect the work of scores of researchers, modelers and health officials who rely on CDC data to make projections and crucial decisions.”
This just doesn’t seem right. It seems too wrong to be true…
claire kim. 