We continue to live in very challenging times and observing actions that we probably never anticipated seeing.  Some of these are troubling for sure. #Eyeswideopen 
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May 6th, 2020 | by Andy Sher

NASHVILLE - Tennessee Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey said Tuesday that while her department brought on another 230 people last month to help with critical contact tracing of people exposed to the coronavirus, the department is looking to bring on an unspecified number of additional workers in coming days.

During Gov. Bill Lee's online news briefing on Tuesday, Piercey said in response to questions posed by the Times Free Press that her department has "well above 300 contact tracers and looking to bring on another cohort, probably sometime in June."

The contact tracers interview individuals who test positive for the virus and gain information about their contacts with other people in recent weeks. Then comes trying to find and speak to the people, many of whom likely don't know they had been in contact with someone who later tested positive.

State governments are building armies of contact tracers in a new phase of the battle against the coronavirus pandemic, returning to a fundamental practice in public health that can at once wrestle the virus under control and put hundreds of thousands of newly jobless people back to work.

California is already conducting contact tracing in 22 counties, and it eventually plans to field a force of 10,000 state employees, who will be given basic training by University of California health experts.

Massachusetts and Ohio have partnered with Partners in Health, a global health nonprofit originally established to support programs in Haiti, to field teams of contact tracers. Maryland will partner with the University of Chicago and NORC, formerly the National Opinion Research Center, to quadruple its contact tracing capacity.



 

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NATALIE ALLISON AND YIHYUN JEONG | NASHVILLE TENNESSEAN | 9:21 am CDT May 9, 2020

Gov. Bill Lee says the state's release to police departments and sheriff's offices the names and addresses of Tennesseans who have tested positive for the coronavirus is necessary to protect officers' lives - information that is also being independently shared between city health officials and police in Nashville.
Lee told reporters at Second Harvest Food Bank in Nashville on Friday the details are only for those working "from a law enforcement standpoint" to know who has tested positive. 

"We believe that that's appropriate to protect the lives of law enforcement," Lee said when asked why police need the information

The Tennessee Lookout, a new nonprofit news organization, first reported the agreement between local law enforcement agencies and the state Department of Health, which is releasing the information.

The Tennessee Black Caucus of State Legislators wants the state to quit giving names and addresses of COVID-19 patients to police.

The caucus made the request to Gov. Bill Lee and the Tennessee Department of Health, WATE reported, citing a press release from the caucus. Lee sent letters to Tennessee police offering to provide personal information to their departments once they've entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the state.

The press release said:

The Administration said the data is being made available so first responders would have the opportunity to protect themselves if they were called to an address where an infected person resides. However, Chairman Hardaway of Memphis says the information could actually have a "chilling effect" that keeps those already distrustful of the government from taking the COVID-19 test and possibly accelerate the spread of the disease.

Caucus Vice Chair Rick Staples (D-15) of Knoxville also questioned the practice, WATN said.

May 5, 2020 Chris Butler

GOP officials from eight Tennessee counties sent a letter to Gov. Bill Lee Monday pleading with him to repeal all restrictions on businesses and gatherings of any kind after the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the letter, they also asked Lee to end the state legislature's current recess.

Coffee County GOP Chair Richard Brooks, one of the eight co-signers, told The Tennessee Star Monday that state legislators, once they return, will "do the work of the people."

"Yes, [if legislators come back] they will talk about making more laws, but, also, it's a check on the governor's power and authority during this emergency proclamation that he's made," Brooks said.

"Our system of government is set up so that no one person has ultimate power and authority. So, at this point, the governor's authority during a declared state of emergency just gives some kind of carte blanche rulership over the state. What we want is to go in the direction of 'open the state back up, lead from the front, and let the legislators do their job being a separate body of government.'"

Lee's staff members did not return a request for comment Monday.

Maury County GOP Chair Jason Whatley, meanwhile, said Tennessee's rural counties deserve to have a voice in how state officials respond to COVID-19.

"We are of the opinion that the people are smart enough to make these decisions on our own and that we have missed the boat when it comes to everything about the shutdowns. We are accepting the word of the government as being the final word as if they have a lock on all knowledge," Whatley told The Star.