WEBVTT - Training the Contact Tracing Workforce

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<v Speaker 1>It's Wednesday, May six. I'm Oscar Ramiraz from the Daily

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<v Speaker 1>Dive podcast in Los Angeles, and this is your daily

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<v Speaker 1>coronavirus update. States around the country are beginning to get

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<v Speaker 1>their army of coronavirus detectives ready to work. In California, specifically,

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<v Speaker 1>the state has teamed up with two universities to train

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<v Speaker 1>more than three thousand employees per week to become contact tracers.

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<v Speaker 1>A robust system of contact tracing will be crucial for

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<v Speaker 1>states to manage the spread of the virus as they reopened,

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<v Speaker 1>and one estimate says that the country needs thirty contact

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<v Speaker 1>tracers for every one thousand people. Rachel Becker, reporter at

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<v Speaker 1>cal Matters, joins us for more. Thanks for joining us, Rachel,

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<v Speaker 1>thanks for having me. I wanted to talk about the

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<v Speaker 1>army of coronavirus detectives needed to reopen states. We're gonna

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<v Speaker 1>talk about California specifically, but really this is something that's

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<v Speaker 1>going to be happening across the country. States need to

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<v Speaker 1>get a robust system of contact tracing in order to

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<v Speaker 1>help limit the spread of coronavirus once things start getting

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<v Speaker 1>back open and once the economy start moving again. So

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<v Speaker 1>Rachel tell us a little bit about the plan that

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<v Speaker 1>California is going through because they're using the University of California,

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<v Speaker 1>Los Angeles and the University of California, San Francisco to

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<v Speaker 1>help train a bunch of workers. Tell us about it. So,

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<v Speaker 1>California has been doing contact tracing already at the local level.

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<v Speaker 1>So the sixty one city and county public health departments

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<v Speaker 1>have been conducting contact tracing for forever. It's a it's

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<v Speaker 1>a cornerstone of public health for tuberculosis, for s t

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<v Speaker 1>I s sexually transmitted infections, and for the novel coronavirus.

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<v Speaker 1>But as the coronavirus keeps spreading, it's really taxed their

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<v Speaker 1>existing staff. Some have managed to lean on county employees

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<v Speaker 1>to help with contact tracing, but yesterday Governor Gavin Newsom

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<v Speaker 1>announced that California will be kind of stepping up to

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<v Speaker 1>help as well with what he called a training academy

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<v Speaker 1>from the University of California, Los Angeles in the University

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<v Speaker 1>of California, San Francisco, and this trading academy will provide

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<v Speaker 1>twelve hours of online instruction eight hours of in person

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<v Speaker 1>instruction to redeployed state employees in large part to help

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<v Speaker 1>with contact tracing, and the local health departments in the

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<v Speaker 1>state can request help and then they'll be assigned contact

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<v Speaker 1>tracers that are part of this new workforce. Now, I

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<v Speaker 1>wanted to talk about the number of contact traces that

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<v Speaker 1>we would need. The National Association of County and City

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<v Speaker 1>Health Officials estimated that the country will need thirty contact

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<v Speaker 1>traces for every one thousand Americans, So in California, that's

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<v Speaker 1>about twelve thousand that they'll need. And you mentioned just

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<v Speaker 1>right now that the governor plans on redeploying state employees.

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<v Speaker 1>That's a lot of state employees to shift around. Is

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<v Speaker 1>this going to be a potential for new jobs as well,

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<v Speaker 1>Like will people be able to apply for these things

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<v Speaker 1>or does it just seem right now like it's going

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<v Speaker 1>to be state employees only. Yesterday Governor Newsom's said that

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<v Speaker 1>they were going to be recruiting from state employees with

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<v Speaker 1>kind of the right set of skills, including kind of

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<v Speaker 1>what you call the health mindset, language skills, cultural competency.

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<v Speaker 1>But whether that will be enough, how exactly they're being recruited,

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<v Speaker 1>how many have been recruited already, and how many remain

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<v Speaker 1>to be recruited. All of those are open questions that

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<v Speaker 1>I'm hoping to get answers to. We're obviously going through

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<v Speaker 1>a very tough time in the economy, and right now

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<v Speaker 1>this could be a really good pathway for a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of people that need a job to do some very

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<v Speaker 1>valuable work, especially considering the time that we need right now.

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<v Speaker 1>The only concern will be is after maybe a year

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<v Speaker 1>or two, after things die down, hopefully, will those jobs

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<v Speaker 1>be viable still. There's a lot of questions that go

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<v Speaker 1>with it, unfortunately, but something that needs to be done.

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<v Speaker 1>And we've talked about this before, contact tracing and kind

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<v Speaker 1>of the attitude and a person needed to be able

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<v Speaker 1>to do all this stuff. It is kind of a

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<v Speaker 1>challenging job to call somebody cold calls a lot of

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<v Speaker 1>times and then convince them, let's say, if they're positive

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<v Speaker 1>they come in contact with somebody that's positive, to stay

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<v Speaker 1>home for two weeks. It could be a pretty challenging job.

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<v Speaker 1>It requires really a lot of people's skills. I was

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<v Speaker 1>talking to one disease control branch chief in Riverside County

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<v Speaker 1>and she said it can take multiple phone calls to

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<v Speaker 1>really build enough trust to reconstruct someone's string of contact

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<v Speaker 1>sometimes people will call the public health department to verify

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<v Speaker 1>that the phone called they received as in fact public

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<v Speaker 1>health contact tracer and not a scam. And it can

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<v Speaker 1>take multiple interviews to really have someone trust enough to

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<v Speaker 1>disclose whom they might have encountered. That trust is so

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<v Speaker 1>important because having people willing to talk about whom they

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<v Speaker 1>might have exposed is really key to identifying the chain

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<v Speaker 1>of viral transmission that could continue to spread without identifying,

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<v Speaker 1>testing and isolating folks who may have been exposed. So

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<v Speaker 1>other public health folks I've talked to have really emphasized

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<v Speaker 1>the need to ensure that there is wage replacement and

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<v Speaker 1>paid sick cleave. So people are willing to be tested

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<v Speaker 1>and willing to name folks that they might have exposed

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<v Speaker 1>without worrying that they're going to be out of work

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<v Speaker 1>themselves or that they're going to put their friends, their families,

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<v Speaker 1>and their co workers out of work. Also, that's definitely

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<v Speaker 1>going to be an important component to it, especially if

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<v Speaker 1>you're basically telling somebody you've got to miss two weeks

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<v Speaker 1>of work. Tell us a little bit more about the program.

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<v Speaker 1>I've been reading that this new online training program that

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<v Speaker 1>they're gonna be working on is going to help standardize

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<v Speaker 1>the contact tracing statewide, which is great. I think if

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of people working off that same platform, it's

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<v Speaker 1>going to just help. And then it's also gonna sync

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<v Speaker 1>up with the California's existing digital disease surveillance platform. So

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<v Speaker 1>all this stuff to help everybody kind of streamline the

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<v Speaker 1>whole thing. And I spoke with a local public health

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<v Speaker 1>department officially yesterday who hadn't yet seen the training program.

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<v Speaker 1>The state, as far as I know, has not released

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<v Speaker 1>any examples of what the training will look like. But

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<v Speaker 1>the idea that this public health department officer was so

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<v Speaker 1>excited about was that this means that this a core

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<v Speaker 1>of contact tracers will be trained the same way, and

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<v Speaker 1>so you won't have differences in approaches across the state

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<v Speaker 1>for those who are kind of pitching in at the

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<v Speaker 1>local level, everybody will have the same level of expertise.

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<v Speaker 1>And then this data management platform, again very little detail

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<v Speaker 1>has been released from the state, but it's supposed to

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<v Speaker 1>sync up with the existing disease surveillance system cal ready

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<v Speaker 1>and so what I've heard, and again we don't know

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<v Speaker 1>this for sure yet, but what I've heard is that

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<v Speaker 1>this can import information from cal ready, so it's kind

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<v Speaker 1>of a seamless transition. So if you get a positive

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<v Speaker 1>test result reported on cal ready, it should be able

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<v Speaker 1>to sync up with this new contact tracing platform. I've

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<v Speaker 1>also heard excitement about the fact that this contact tracing

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<v Speaker 1>platform will be statewide, which means that it will be

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<v Speaker 1>easier to follow cases and contacts that cross county lines, which,

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<v Speaker 1>as we see the state opening back up, will certainly

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<v Speaker 1>occur more and more. It's good to see the California

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<v Speaker 1>is starting to get the ball rolling on getting this

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<v Speaker 1>system set up, and as I mentioned earlier, the states

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<v Speaker 1>all across the country actually working on their own programs,

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<v Speaker 1>whether they share some similarities or not. It is a

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<v Speaker 1>robust system that needs to be set up to monitor

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<v Speaker 1>the spread of COVID nineteen. So we'll keep monitoring it

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<v Speaker 1>and see how it all develops. Rachel Becker, reporter at

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<v Speaker 1>cal Matters. Thank you very much for joining us. Thanks

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<v Speaker 1>for inviting me. I'm Oscar Ramirez and this has been

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<v Speaker 1>your daily coronavirus update. You don't forget effort today's big

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<v Speaker 1>news stories. You can check me out on the Daily

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<v Speaker 1>Dive podcast every Monday through Friday, So follow US on

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<v Speaker 1>I Heart Radio, or wherever you get your podcast