Thread by @binarybits

I feel like I have a better sense for why contact tracing hasn't gone well in the US after being on the receiving end a couple of times. In recent weeks each of my two kids has had a covid case in their classrooms. (They didn't get it.)

In DC, the first thing a contact tracer does after introducing themselves is to demand that you give them your kid's date of birth and home address. They won't tell you anything about why they called until then.

I found this a little offputting, especially since they hadn't authenticated themselves to me. I didn't seriously doubt they were legit since we had just had a covid case, but still it seems unnecessary since they're mostly seeking information from me.

One of them asked me a series of questions about my 3-year-old son's gender identity.

They then texted me a website link that I could use to report on my kid's symptoms each day of quarantine. It wanted me to (again) enter date of birth and zip code.

I'm sure they have their reasons for all of these steps, but it seemed like a lot of hassle for not that much value. They did very little of what I thought was the main point of contact tracing, which was to ask whether the exposed person had interacted with others.

If I was running the contact tracing, I think I'd work hard to eliminate or streamline the formalities at the start of each interaction so people don't feel like their time is being wasted or that they're dealing with an impersonal bureaucracy.

Maybe that means tweaking health privacy laws to allow contact tracers to take peoples' word for it when they say they're somebody's parent. Or maybe design the script so (whenever possible) the contact tracer is only collecting sensitive information, not disclosing it.

One other thing: DC contact tracing is *slow.* Our school notified us about our daughter's exposure on Sunday around 1pm. We got a call from the contact tracer on Wednesday, 72 hours later. I think my son's call a couple of weeks ago took even longer than that.