People keep saying that when this pandemic is over, we have to make sure our contact tracing capacity is strengthened to cope with future threats. This reflects a misunderstanding of what contact tracing is. Contact tracing involves talking to a case and finding out who….. 
…they’ve been in touch with. This is really important stuff, but that data is then used by specialists in outbreak control to assess and manage those contacts. Ultimately, public health teams need to use data from many sources to make a plan to control the disease. This is….
…complex work and requires years of training. Our contact tracers are superb, but people can be trained to contact trace in a short space of time. That function can be ramped up pretty quickly when required. What we need before the next pandemic are enough outbreak control…
….specialists in public health units. Very few people, even now, understand how a covid cluster or outbreak is controlled in the real world. Ironically, covid control teams are becoming exhausted worldwide and people are quitting. It’s ironic that most public health systems…..
…are in danger of having less public health doctors than before covid, due to burnout. My real hope at the end of this thing is that public health units will be as important to the public and politicians as EDs and cath labs. I suspect we’ll quickly fall off the radar though.
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