@Flash wrote:
What I have been reading/hearing about is phone work. My sister's neighbor is currently being monitored by a Contact Tracker by phone each day. The neighbor was in contact with a medical worker who tested positive for COVID and the neighbor is now in mandatory isolation at home. She is being checked on daily by phone to determine whether she has any symptoms and whether she is maintaining isolation. Without symptoms they are not sending her for testing or sending someone to her for testing. She is frustrated because she is unable to find out if the medical worker she was in contact with has developed symptoms.
Originally, I believe it was done in person.@Opanel wrote:
I did not realize that Flash meant that the program was telephone work. I apologize.
@Shop-et-al wrote:
Don't people have HIPPA rights? Has our right to medical privacy been usurped in the Covid-19 era? This is alarming!
I think liberty/freedom, though, is restricted by whether our actions harm others or not.@Shop-et-al wrote:
Wearing a mask at the most necessary times and places, washing my hands, wearing gloves, and self-care are fine for me. This is enough government.
I would rather remind us that this is still the United States, a Republic, and a vast place that came to be because of over-reach. I would start with Ben Franklin. Others might start with another insightful soul who had the foresight to forge a foundational philosophy that can protect us from ourselves and keep our country sovereign.
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." (Benjamin Franklin)
@ wrote:
College degree required? Not necessarily
Interestingly, contact tracing doesn’t involve much detective work, although experts say critical-thinking skills and persistence are among the keys to success. Case investigators for health authorities typically reach out to people who test positive for Covid-19 and, in doing so, try to gather the names and phone numbers of their close contacts (usually immediate family members, friends and/or coworkers). That information is passed along to contact tracers — trained, entry-level employees who don’t necessarily have a four-year college degree or a background in health care.
Contact tracers usually work from a script, although as you might imagine, things can get messy when you’re delivering bad news to strangers and asking them to hole up in their homes, which may mean forfeiting a paycheck.
“The biggest misconception about contact tracing is that you need to have public health training or experience,” says Christiana Coyle, a professor at New York University’s School of Global Public Health and a former contact tracer for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
“It’s more important,” says Coyle, “that you’re comfortable with medical terminology, working through a script and cold-calling people. For me, cold-calling was the hardest part. You’re giving people news that’s potentially very disturbing and serious. You never know what you’ll encounter on the other end of the phone.”
Be prepared, says Coyle, for some tears and hang-ups.
@ wrote:
Gabriel says his firm, which now has 45 employees, may hire as many as 1,000 contact tracers by early June. Salaries will range from $17 to $38 per hour depending on location.