Horowitz: We Must Act Now to Build a National COVID-19 Contact Tracing Force

Horowitz: We Must Act Now to Build a National COVID-19 Contact Tracing Force

Drawing on the experiences of other nations that are doing a far better job than we are in combating COVID 19 as well as on proven public health strategies, The Center for Health Security at John Hopkins University recently proposed adding 100,000 contract tracers nationally in order to better identify COVID-19 cases and track down all close contacts that were exposed. This is one of the key components essential to limiting community spread over the long-term, enabling us to safely open the nation back up for business over the next few months. Congress should move at once to authorize the estimated $3.6 billion this program would cost and the Administration should hire an experienced manager with substantial experience in overseeing a large-scale operation to ensure rapid implementation. 

As the Center for Health Security proposal spells out, “It is estimated that each infected person can, on average, infect 2 to 3 others. This means that if 1 person spreads the virus to 3 others, that first positive case can turn into more than 59,000 cases in 10 rounds of infections.” This highlights the importance of a “case-based intervention” approach that has proven successful in controlling the spread of other illnesses, such as tuberculosis, measles, and syphilis. Nations, such as South Korea, Iceland, and New Zealand, have aggressively and effectively implemented this approach to limit COVID-19.

The need for a rapid scaling up of our public health workforce is in part a result of the fact that draconian funding cuts have left us ill-prepared for this level of pandemic. Since the great recession of 2008, we have seen a reduction of “50,000 positions across public health organizations nationally,” according to the Center for Health Security.  Today, we simply do not have anywhere near the number of ‘health care worker boots on the ground’ to do the robust contact tracing required.

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Adding 100,000 contact tracers, Center for Health Security estimates will give us the firepower to do the detailed follow-up required to trace all contacts from known cases of COVID-19. This will also provide the additional workforce needed to “safely isolate the sick, and quarantine those exposed.”  These new workers can be deployed through state and local departments of health, and in certain instances, non-profits dedicated to this task, and sent to hot spots, where they are most needed. There is generic nationwide intensive training for contact tracers already being developed. It will need to be supplemented by training at the local level.

This dramatically stepped-up contact tracing must still be combined with the robust and widespread testing that we have yet to achieve in order to be able to safely reduce social distancing measures and open up our economy. As the proposal outlines. "rapid diagnostic tests for all symptomatic cases or those with a reasonable suspicion of COVID-19 exposure" must be readily available, along with “widespread serological testing to understand underlying rates of infection and identify those who have developed immunity and could potentially return to work or school without fear of becoming infected.”

Even if this initiative ends up costing ten times as much as the $3.6 billion estimated, it is still one of the most cost-effective actions we can take to protect our health and safety, while we bring our economy and nation back to at least a new ‘normal’  Congress must move quickly to turn this proposal into legislation and pass it. The president must then delegate its implementation to a proven manager and leader. empowering that person to get this critical job done.

Rob Horowitz is a strategic and communications consultant who provides general consulting, public relations, direct mail services and polling for national and state issue organizations, various non-profits, businesses, and elected officials and candidates. He is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island.