Pre-emptive Mass-Testing via Wastewater Analysis?

You know, I'm not really happy at this article: Residents at 2 more HDB blocks in Hougang to undergo mandatory COVID-19 testing. Here's the relevant part that I'm not happy with:

SINGAPORE: Residents at two more blocks at Hougang Avenue 8 will have to undergo mandatory COVID-19 tests, after traces of the virus were found in wastewater samples taken from those blocks.

There have not been any confirmed COVID-19 cases at those blocks, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Monday (May 31).

The first time this wastewater sampling was talked about was back in Jun 19, 2020, with a subsequent follow up report on Jul 22, 2020. In both cases, they were referencing the use of such testing to detect COVID-19 latent cases in the foreign worker dormitories.

So when did this surveillance technology get deployed into residential areas unto the citizens?

Well, an article released today (Jun 01, 2021) made a point to confirm a chain of events that put suspicion before [additional] surveillance. To wit (emphasis mine):

Residents of Block 745 Yishun Street 72 were being tested after the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Monday that there was "likely COVID-19 transmission" in the block.

Six COVID-19 cases have been identified in the block, spread over two different households. Subsequent wastewater testing detected COVID-19 viral fragments in the block, said the ministry.

As for the case of two blocks in Hougang where the surveillance was activated before any cases were discovered, the article published on May 23, 2021 suggests that perhaps it was incidental due to the discovery of cases at block 506 (the two other blocks referred to are blocks 501 and 507).

A quick glance at the vicinity of Blk 506, Hougang Ave 8 shows that block 507 is to the south of block 506, and block 501 is to the south-west of block 506, which does provide some credence to the whole vicinity check thing for wastewater.

Good for pandemic control, am I right?

Now, let me flip the lens the other way around and be worried. I don't know what the laws are regarding the taking of action from such wastewater surveillance technologies. I think we, as a whole, have been quite flippant about the erosion of [the already few] checks and balances with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the very late post-facto execution of the spelling out of the restrictions of TraceTogether data in Feb 02, 2021, even though the explicit restrictions still allows the expanded use case of using the TraceTogether information for ``serious criminal cases'' as specified in the Criminal Procedure Code. Not having any laws governing actions taken after wastewater surveillance (or even when wastewater surveillance is applicable) can be dangerous, because it can potentially start a drag-net type of action just by the declaration of the detection of trace amounts of some illegal substances as a reason to demand that an entire apartment block of people be subjected to mandatory drug tests or other types of highly invasive searches without the involvement of a [specific] search warrant.

We ought to be explicit about who can initiate wastewater analysis/surveillance procedures, what circumstances and tests are allowed to have such wastewater analysed, and specific questions that the wastewater analysis is supposed to answer. But frankly, I'm not going to hold my breath. It is the norm for new powers to be grabbed and fully exploited to their full extent until there is some kind of determined push-back to curtail their use, and as long as the push-back isn't determined enough, nothing will come out of it. This is true for all governments, and not just the one in SIN. And with SIN, the only bloc strong enough to push-back is sadly not the citizens, but the businesses and the often-times unidentified upper echelons of society, and in this day and age, everyone wants a slice of the surveillance capitalism pie.

Soon the diversity inherent in societies that make them resilient will fade away as everyone is coerced into conformity due to the outliers sticking out more obviously through cheap application of large-scale surveillance and brainwashing. And then the social equivalent of a virus will come and exploit this homogeneity and wipe out the entire society.

That's one scenario in which humanity can kill itself out.

And now, I'm sad. Till the next update.