Gov. Phil Murphy laid out a plan to collaborate with local health departments to do COVID-19 contact tracing Tuesday at his daily press briefing.
“For this, we are contracting with the technology firm Dimagi to bring their CommCare platform to New Jersey. CommCare will ensure that all data is centralized and uniformly reported. We are increasing collaboration among the municipalities that make up a county to help have a more regional county-based approach. The cost of this software will be shouldered by the state,” Murphy continued.
Assemblyman Jamel Holley opposes contact tracing for now and wants public hearings on how to protect medical information — even as the state insists confidentiality is paramount.
“Quite frankly, as it stands now, it’s not something that I can support because there is a lot of unknowns,” Holley said. “Who are these individuals who are going to have access to our information? It brings great concern and pause when we talk about our privacy. Now, we’re talking about Big Pharma, we’re talking about big tech companies, we’re talking about $25 an hour tracers who are going to be hired to provide information relative to our medical records.”
Englewood’s Health Director Jim Fedorko understands Holley’s concern.
“That’s what the beauty of the local health department, I think, is because it’s not a statewide system. I think it’s better if you have the local health departments doing it; I think the information will be better protected,” he said.
Registered nurse Lillian Carnero hears the fears of skeptics on the other end of the call as a contact tracer — folks not sure who’s really calling, why and what’s going to happen to the information they give.
“I just explain to them the purpose of the call, we’re contact tracing, and the basics, we need to know who they’ve been in contact with so then we’ll help decrease this spread,” she said.
For HIPPA concerns, Fedorko favors hirees and volunteers with health and medical experience to do contact tracing.
“A tech company, or you’re just getting volunteers or people from who knows where, I don’t agree with that,” he said.
Tech executive Ian Marlowe says big tech has a mountain of trust to climb in the era of contact tracing, storing and sharing medical information.
“Given the fact that we have guidelines on how handle sensitive electronic information on the books now, that needs to be looked at as to how it applies to the digital world and mobile world that we live in now,” Marlowe said. “[Trust] is a big leap in a world where, honestly, when we hear about the next breach none of us are surprised.”
New Jersey has 800 to 900 contact tracers currently working on the county level. Murphy plans to add 1,000 more.
