Jaewon Ryu and Karen M. Murphy write in STAT that the biomedical community works to develop treatments and vaccines for Covid-19, a national strategy of social distancing, broad testing, and isolating individuals with the virus will be required to stop its spread. Contact tracing — identifying individuals who have been infected with the virus and the people they’ve been in contact with — must be at the core of this strategy. It is exactly what is needed for a safe return to a “new normal.”
Contact tracing has historically involved state and local public health departments reaching out to individuals infected with communicable diseases, such as measles or sexually transmitted diseases, as well as to those with whom they have come in contact so they can take the necessary actions to prevent spreading the disease. This works best when we know how a communicable or contagious disease is spread.
What do you think? Is this something your department would consider?