“The US needs tens of thousands of ‘disease detectives’ to safely reopen the economy.”

by Dylan Scott

“To safely begin reopening the economy, America will need to rely on so-called disease detectives to track the novel coronavirus and contain new emerging outbreaks before they grow out of control.

This work, known as “contact tracing,” is critical for state plans to relax social distancing without inviting a sudden resurgence of Covid-19 cases. All the various plans to ease social distancing restrictions rely on this work.

To prevent another spike in cases, public health workers will perform the difficult and sometimes tedious process of interviewing people diagnosed with Covid-19, finding out whom they have recently been in close physical contact with, and then informing those people of their potential exposure and advising them to self-isolate and get tested.

“’The rapidity with which this work has to be done is really unprecedented.’”

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