[Goose]

Contact tracing is down from 30% to 21%, not a good trend.

BC

The contact tracing statistic is probably useless. It is based on how many contact tracers are employed in California, how many new cases there are, and a "standard" value of how many cases a day can be traced by one person. The first number, the number of contact tracers, is mostly a guess, because no jurisdiction I am aware of has really give a "straight" answer to the question. Second, the number of cases one can do in a day is a pretty conservative number. It may be close to correct, but at least in San Mateo County they claim they are doing the job with many fewer people. How many fewer depends on the degree to which the 85 "available" tracers are being called upon to help the 30(?) full time tracers.

Once again I have asked the San Mateo County health department to publish some information on how many "contacts" they are requesting to quarantine (per week would be fine) and how many of the "positive" tests were people already listed as "contacts". The answer I got back (again) was that they are thinking about what to release and that they want to do it in conjunction with the other Bay Area jurisdictions. I am not at all happy with this answer. They have had enough time. They have the data. One of the problems with the public's response to Public Health is IMHO the lack of real, transparent data about what is going on. We are relying on these people, and are expected to do what they demand of us. In order to get people to do so willingly, we need to see and hear about a plan that can work. So far, that is absent.

[Goose]

Contact tracing is down from 30% to 21%, not a good trend.

BC

The contact tracing statistic is probably useless. It is based on how many contact tracers are employed in California, how many new cases there are, and a "standard" value of how many cases a day can be traced by one person. The first number, the number of contact tracers, is mostly a guess, because no jurisdiction I am aware of has really give a "straight" answer to the question. Second, the number of cases one can do in a day is a pretty conservative number. It may be close to correct, but at least in San Mateo County they claim they are doing the job with many fewer people. How many fewer depends on the degree to which the 85 "available" tracers are being called upon to help the 30(?) full time tracers.

Once again I have asked the San Mateo County health department to publish some information on how many "contacts" they are requesting to quarantine (per week would be fine) and how many of the "positive" tests were people already listed as "contacts". The answer I got back (again) was that they are thinking about what to release and that they want to do it in conjunction with the other Bay Area jurisdictions. I am not at all happy with this answer. They have had enough time. They have the data. One of the problems with the public's response to Public Health is IMHO the lack of real, transparent data about what is going on. We are relying on these people, and are expected to do what they demand of us. In order to get people to do so willingly, we need to see and hear about a plan that can work. So far, that is absent.