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Pretty soon we’ll all have a chance to get tested, and Dr. Keith Jerome, who runs the UW Virology lab, thinks these tests will be very popular. That’s because people are curious, and they want to do the right thing.

“I’d want to know, because I don’t want to infect other people, right?” he told ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Radio.

Exactly.

But if you test positive – especially if you have no symptoms – you will probably be asked by a member of the state’s growing brigade of virus trackers to, as best you can, list the locations you’ve visited and the people you got close to.

And I asked Dr. Jerome (who hasn’t been tested yet himself – he’s waiting in line just like everybody else), would he feel comfortable giving names?

Anybody named by that infected person would – if we’re really going to stop the spread while keeping the state open – have to be tested and potentially isolated.

Dr. Jerome knows what he’d do – he’d cooperate because it’s the right thing to do.

“And I think you’re going to see the same thing – there is going to be some peer pressure to say, ‘well, if you do test positive even if you haven’t had symptoms, wouldn’t you mind working with the authorities or an app or whatever to figure out where you’ve been and who else might get that infection?'” he posited. “Because remember, they may not be as lucky as you are (and you have no symptoms) – they may end up in the hospital and the sooner we get those people the care they need.”

That would make it your patriotic duty to give tracers the names of the people you contacted, because you’d be doing it for their own good. And the fact that it was you would be kept confidential.

But sometimes people put two and two together, and if they end up getting isolated because you were running around without a face mask, or if they end up in the hospital because of you, I would hate to be in that position.

So I’m thinking I might just keep isolating. I love you all, but I think I’ll wait until the governor specifically orders me to leave the house.

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News weekday mornings from 5 – 9 a.m. on ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.