[Snorlax94]

As someone who (a) is incredibly frustrated at the lack of contract tracing and the ridiculous paucity of information into where the cases are coming from, and (b) has recently taken a Covid-19 test (negative), I don't understand why we can't start contact tracing at the point of testing.

When I was tested for Covid, I drove into a garage, they directed me, gave me a mask to wear, asked me some questions, put a sticker on my car, had me drive to another part of the garage, answer some more questions, found me on their checklist, had me drive to another part of the garage, had me wait for a station to open, then I pulled into it, they checked my name on the sticker on my car, stuck a swab up my nose, and I was on my way.

I don't understand why they couldn't give me a piece of paper and had me fill it out while I was waiting, asking me:
(1) What is my cell phone number, and how many people live in the same household, and for their names and cell phone numbers, and where they work.
(2) Do I work? What is my role (cashier, stocking, delivery, desk, construction)? Who is the employer and where do I work (at home or on-site) List a few co-workers names (and cell numbers if I have them) who work closest to me if anyone is nearby.
(3) Have I been out recently? Going backwards, list any restaurants I ate at or shops I went to most recently that I can recall, and the approximate time.
(4) Please be honest about any social gatherings I participated in starting most recently, was it at a home/park/business/church, how many people were there, and was it indoors or outdoors.
(5) If I do test positive, what would be my guess at where I may have gotten it from.

I could just list very rough information to jog my memory later -- "Sunday afternoon got groceries from Santa Clara Costco, Saturday night picked up take-out from Sunnyvale Pizz'a Chicago. Friday night, met one other household for dinner at the Palo Alto Ike's Sandwiches."

They can assure me if I test negative, they'll destroy it. They can assure me my name will be kept anonymous. I definitely would have filled it out. The data would be a starting point for any follow-up work, and it could help jog my memory if my test came back positive (also, if the test came back positive, I might be freaked out or even sick by then).

I wouldn't even have to return the form -- to avoid germs, I could just hold it up in my car window and they could take a photo of it. Even if only some people filled it out, it could shed so much light into where the cases are coming from, and I suspect a LOT of people would fill them out -- I actually think people would be more likely to spill the beans before they have their test results -- they might be more inclined to try to cover things up, hide culpability, and hide workplaces and friends' names once they know they are positive.

They could standardize forms and dump summary data and make it available to the public (what percent of people do necessary work, what percent eat out, what percent of people cited recent risky social gatherings, and what were they -- family, co-workers, friends, etc.). 

They’d need to put some thought into the formatting of the forms to make them quick, unambiguous, standardized, insightful, normalized, etc.

Is there any reason they're not doing this?

[Snorlax94]

As someone who (a) is incredibly frustrated at the lack of contract tracing and the ridiculous paucity of information into where the cases are coming from, and (b) has recently taken a Covid-19 test (negative), I don't understand why we can't start contact tracing at the point of testing.

When I was tested for Covid, I drove into a garage, they directed me, gave me a mask to wear, asked me some questions, put a sticker on my car, had me drive to another part of the garage, answer some more questions, found me on their checklist, had me drive to another part of the garage, had me wait for a station to open, then I pulled into it, they checked my name on the sticker on my car, stuck a swab up my nose, and I was on my way.

I don't understand why they couldn't give me a piece of paper and had me fill it out while I was waiting, asking me:
(1) What is my cell phone number, and how many people live in the same household, and for their names and cell phone numbers, and where they work.
(2) Do I work? What is my role (cashier, stocking, delivery, desk, construction)? Who is the employer and where do I work (at home or on-site) List a few co-workers names (and cell numbers if I have them) who work closest to me if anyone is nearby.
(3) Have I been out recently? Going backwards, list any restaurants I ate at or shops I went to most recently that I can recall, and the approximate time.
(4) Please be honest about any social gatherings I participated in starting most recently, was it at a home/park/business/church, how many people were there, and was it indoors or outdoors.
(5) If I do test positive, what would be my guess at where I may have gotten it from.

I could just list very rough information to jog my memory later -- "Sunday afternoon got groceries from Santa Clara Costco, Saturday night picked up take-out from Sunnyvale Pizz'a Chicago. Friday night, met one other household for dinner at the Palo Alto Ike's Sandwiches."

They can assure me if I test negative, they'll destroy it. They can assure me my name will be kept anonymous. I definitely would have filled it out. The data would be a starting point for any follow-up work, and it could help jog my memory if my test came back positive (also, if the test came back positive, I might be freaked out or even sick by then).

I wouldn't even have to return the form -- to avoid germs, I could just hold it up in my car window and they could take a photo of it. Even if only some people filled it out, it could shed so much light into where the cases are coming from, and I suspect a LOT of people would fill them out -- I actually think people would be more likely to spill the beans before they have their test results -- they might be more inclined to try to cover things up, hide culpability, and hide workplaces and friends' names once they know they are positive.

They could standardize forms and dump summary data and make it available to the public (what percent of people do necessary work, what percent eat out, what percent of people cited recent risky social gatherings, and what were they -- family, co-workers, friends, etc.). 

They’d need to put some thought into the formatting of the forms to make them quick, unambiguous, standardized, insightful, normalized, etc.

Is there any reason they're not doing this?

[M T]

Why not just have you get the form so you can fill it out at your leisure at home, and then you can go over it with the contact tracer.  It serves all the purposes of jogging your memory.

If they receive that form from you, it would be considered HIPAA info and they'd have to track it and make sure it was protected, and only accessible for the right purposes.  That's probably an expense they don't need.  You have that opportunity to give the info later.

I imagine each person could give a lot of info into a web form, but again that form would be considered sensitive info.  Any you may give information that they can't use.  But, in a phone interview, I imagine that the interviewer will possibly miss info that was said, or will not know to ask for info that the patient might have.

[M T]

Why not just have you get the form so you can fill it out at your leisure at home, and then you can go over it with the contact tracer.  It serves all the purposes of jogging your memory.

If they receive that form from you, it would be considered HIPAA info and they'd have to track it and make sure it was protected, and only accessible for the right purposes.  That's probably an expense they don't need.  You have that opportunity to give the info later.

I imagine each person could give a lot of info into a web form, but again that form would be considered sensitive info.  Any you may give information that they can't use.  But, in a phone interview, I imagine that the interviewer will possibly miss info that was said, or will not know to ask for info that the patient might have.

[OutsiderFan]

Along these lines, why doesn't the CDC have an app for this kind of info to be entered? There are so many IT tools that could be put together to create something incredibly powerful and effective to serve the whole country.

I saw FL says they have 50,000 people who "have no idea" how they got the virus.  Just a total facepalm moment for this country.

[OutsiderFan]

Along these lines, why doesn't the CDC have an app for this kind of info to be entered? There are so many IT tools that could be put together to create something incredibly powerful and effective to serve the whole country.

I saw FL says they have 50,000 people who "have no idea" how they got the virus.  Just a total facepalm moment for this country.

[chrisk]

Why not just license China’s app? No need to translate even, you don’t want people to know what it does.

[chrisk]

Why not just license China’s app? No need to translate even, you don’t want people to know what it does.

[M T]

I saw FL says they have 50,000 people who "have no idea" how they got the virus.  Just a total facepalm moment for this country.

When you play the game where one person whispers something in the ear of the next person and it goes down the line,  at the end of the line it is almost always mangled in some way.

Florida has now reported over 100,000 coronavirus cases,...

Data Florida Department of Health released Monday shows more than 50,000 people can’t pinpoint how they contracted the coronavirus or who spread it to them.

(source)
Going backward, "no idea" probably came from something like "can't pinpoint".

But digging further, to the apparent real source, Florida reports that of a bit over 100K cases,

• 44K had known contact with confirmed case, and
  
• 58K for whom that isn't true or isn't yet known to be true.
  

Of the 58K,

• 15.6K had no travel and no contact.
  
• 18.8K "contact is unknown",   It is unclear to me if "contact is unknown" means contact existed to people unknown to the patient, or the interviewer was not able to get contact info from the patient, or the contact(s) couldn't be found or refused to be tested.
  
• 22.3K "contact is pending".   I presume "contact is pending" means that contacts were identified and testing results are pending
  

Still, that's about 15% "no contact".



However, there is still the question of whether the contact mentioned here is the infector or infectee of the case (or co-infected).  Generally tracking is primarily looking for infectees, but may also find infector or co-infected. 

So, I don't see this as supporting "how they got the virus" portion.

------

When we have many cases where we don't know how people get the infection, I don't feel we can be certain that the disease is primarily (or almost exclusively) spread by droplet/aerosol (from people) or even fomites.   I think the only way that is acceptable proof to someone like the CDC is to prove that someone with the disease was never exposed to droplets or aerosols or fomites.  That's a very high hurdle.   I don't think you could prove that by a case in an inmate in isolation in death row.

[M T]

I saw FL says they have 50,000 people who "have no idea" how they got the virus.  Just a total facepalm moment for this country.

When you play the game where one person whispers something in the ear of the next person and it goes down the line,  at the end of the line it is almost always mangled in some way.

Florida has now reported over 100,000 coronavirus cases,...

Data Florida Department of Health released Monday shows more than 50,000 people can’t pinpoint how they contracted the coronavirus or who spread it to them.

(source)
Going backward, "no idea" probably came from something like "can't pinpoint".

But digging further, to the apparent real source, Florida reports that of a bit over 100K cases,

• 44K had known contact with confirmed case, and
  
• 58K for whom that isn't true or isn't yet known to be true.
  

Of the 58K,

• 15.6K had no travel and no contact.
  
• 18.8K "contact is unknown",   It is unclear to me if "contact is unknown" means contact existed to people unknown to the patient, or the interviewer was not able to get contact info from the patient, or the contact(s) couldn't be found or refused to be tested.
  
• 22.3K "contact is pending".   I presume "contact is pending" means that contacts were identified and testing results are pending
  

Still, that's about 15% "no contact".



However, there is still the question of whether the contact mentioned here is the infector or infectee of the case (or co-infected).  Generally tracking is primarily looking for infectees, but may also find infector or co-infected. 

So, I don't see this as supporting "how they got the virus" portion.

------

When we have many cases where we don't know how people get the infection, I don't feel we can be certain that the disease is primarily (or almost exclusively) spread by droplet/aerosol (from people) or even fomites.   I think the only way that is acceptable proof to someone like the CDC is to prove that someone with the disease was never exposed to droplets or aerosols or fomites.  That's a very high hurdle.   I don't think you could prove that by a case in an inmate in isolation in death row.