COVID-19 Contact Tracers or Cootie Cops?

Tracing where people have been and who they’ve met can be effective for battling disease. But, oh boy, does it lend itself to abuse.

As if the viral-lockdown apocalypse wasn't already weird enough, now it looks like we'll be dealing with battalions of cootie cops checking on our comings and goings. Technically, they're "contact tracers" and their jobs involve speaking with people who test positive for the novel coronavirus, identifying those to whom they may have transmitted disease, and advising self-quarantine and self-monitoring for symptoms. It's a tactic that has...