Cooperate with contact tracers to stop the coronavirus
We’re all getting weary of the coronavirus pandemic and the disruptions to our lives.
Homeschooling is frustrating for students, parents and teachers. Masks are annoying. Staying apart from family, friends and co-workers is sad. Running a business at half capacity is scary.
But the only way Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley are going to be able to keep the disease in check to prevent further disruptions is for everyone to stick with the game plan.
And that includes cooperating with contact tracers if you catch the virus.
Not enough people are doing that. Health authorities call infected people to trace their steps and identify those they were close to when contagious. They warn those contacts that they were exposed, and tell them to quarantine for up to 14 days to prevent exposing others.
It’s sad that tracers aren’t getting the cooperation they need to make the process work. Maybe that’s one of the reasons cases are rising.
Early in the pandemic, 75% of infected people provided all of their contacts, Allentown Health Director Vicky Kistler estimated Tuesday. Now, she estimates that rate has dropped to 60%.
“To have a superspreader who’s not cooperating, it’s heartbreaking,” she said.
“Some people have been fantastic. They have retraced their steps. They have notified their contacts to tell them we’ll be calling,” Kistler said.
“And then we have the other group. They’ve given us what they think will suffice, to appease us.”
Maybe they’re embarrassed. Maybe they don’t want to be known as the person who forced friends, relatives or co-workers to quarantine. Maybe they just don’t care and figure contact tracers aren’t wise enough to uncover the full extent of their recklessness.
It doesn’t take contact tracers long to realize they were told only part of the story.
Even if they reach only a few contacts that were provided, that sometimes leads them to other contacts whopreviously weren’t identified, or a gathering they were unaware of. “Well, are you calling all the other people whowent to the party?” they’ve been asked.
In other instances, people wholearn they were around a sick person but haven’t been called by a contact tracer call the Health Department, concerned that everyone whoshould be contacted
is. Investigators also find information on social media connecting infected people to a gathering.
Then they have to call the infected person back to prod them for more information, while trying not to be confrontational.
“It’s very time-consuming. It’s very challenging,” Kistler said.
Some people may forget everyone they came in touch with prior to getting sick. If you asked meto trace my steps for the past two weeks and identify everyone I was in close contact with, I doubt I could do it immediately.
Others don’t forget. They lie.
“You don’t forget a 50-person party,” Kistler said.
What’s especially sad is that some people whohave been reluctant to disclose critical information are those you’d expect to be looking out for others. Kistler said the department has struggled with religious leaders and coaches.
“It’s just sad in mymind that we aren’t all about protecting each other,” she said.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health has had the same problem.
From Sept. 20 to Sept. 26, the department couldn’t reach about half of the more than 3,000 sick people they tried to contact trace, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Monday.
“We continue to have issues with people either not participating in the case investigation or contact tracing process, or not answering all the questions,” spokesman Nate Wardle told me Tuesday. “It is essential that people do this so we are aware of where and how the spread of COVID-19 in Pennsylvania is occurring.”
In addition to asking for contacts, tracers also ask sick people if they recently visited a business or attended a large gathering or event.
Answers to those questions often are not provided. The state was able to obtain answers from only 38% of the 6,812 people whotested positive from Sept. 27 to Oct. 3. The previous week, 39% of new cases provided answers.
Tracers specifically ask about visits to restaurants, bars, gyms and beauty salons or barbershops. They are looking for trends that may identify certain types of settings as hotspots that may need to be addressed.
Maybe people are reluctant to answer out of fear that restaurants, gyms and barbershops will be closed again if they acknowledge having been there. That’s the wrong way to look at it.
If wewant to be able to go to those places, and to football games, movies, weddings, birthday parties and other gatherings, weneed to reduce the spread of the virus. Contact tracing is an important part of efforts to contain it, and tracing will become even more important with the state recently allowing larger crowds at events.
People whoget sick may be scared. They may be angry. But there’s no excuse for them to be selfish.
If you refuse to cooperate with a contact tracer, you will endanger others by allowing the illness to spread. That will only dig our hole deeper and possibly force us to deal with even more disruptions.