WEBVTT - For States Wanting to Reopen Their Economies, Test-And-Trace Programs May Be the Key

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<v Speaker 1>It's Thursday, April six. I'm Oscar Ramirez 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. As the country gets ready to reopen the economy,

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<v Speaker 1>states are already preparing test and trace programs that will

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<v Speaker 1>help in the effort. Massachusetts, Utah, and North Dakota are

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<v Speaker 1>among those working on a comprehensive strategy that includes increased

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<v Speaker 1>testing and contact tracing that will monitor those that are

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<v Speaker 1>infected and their close contacts. Emma Court, health reporter at

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<v Speaker 1>Bloomberg News, joins us for how technology will play a

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<v Speaker 1>major role. Thanks for joining us, Emma, thanks for having

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<v Speaker 1>me so as we keep eyeing a way to get back,

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<v Speaker 1>a way to get the economy reopen. There's a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of states that are preparing test and trace programs so

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<v Speaker 1>they can reopen their economies. And basically, I know we've

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<v Speaker 1>been talking about testing for so long now, but we

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<v Speaker 1>still need to ramp up the testing and then follow

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<v Speaker 1>through tracking these cases, seeing where those people that turn

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<v Speaker 1>out positive, where they were, who they came in contact with.

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<v Speaker 1>All of this is in an effort to be able

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<v Speaker 1>to reopen our economies again. Emma tell us how this works.

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<v Speaker 1>There's few states that are kind of on the front

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<v Speaker 1>lines of trying to think of some next steps in

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<v Speaker 1>terms of getting beyond sort of the current testing and

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<v Speaker 1>kind of disease crisis and looking at more preventative approaches

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<v Speaker 1>to making sure that we kind of tamped down that

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<v Speaker 1>curve of COVID cases. So a few states that we

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<v Speaker 1>looked at in our story were Utah, Massachusetts, and North Dakota,

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<v Speaker 1>and we saw in Utah and Massachusetts in particular, there

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<v Speaker 1>was a real focus on not just kind of expanding

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<v Speaker 1>testing capabilities, which you know, as many people may know,

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<v Speaker 1>it's been a real problem. I'm not just kind of

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<v Speaker 1>getting people tested, but getting them tested promptly enough that

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<v Speaker 1>it matters for them in terms of kind of dictating

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<v Speaker 1>how they behave in society, right, but also kind of

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<v Speaker 1>looking at this sort of test in trace model. So

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<v Speaker 1>once someone gets sick and they've been confirmed to have

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<v Speaker 1>COVID nineteen, really making sure that you look at all

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<v Speaker 1>of the possible ways they could have potentially spread this

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<v Speaker 1>infection in the community, reaching out to people they were

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<v Speaker 1>in touch with, and really following up. So if let's

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<v Speaker 1>say I had contact with an infective person at my

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<v Speaker 1>grocery store a week ago. I ran into this person

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<v Speaker 1>and said hi, and they remember that interaction and recount

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<v Speaker 1>it to someone with this public health department, then falling

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<v Speaker 1>up with me and saying, hey, you may have been

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<v Speaker 1>in contact with someone who had COVID, and following up

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<v Speaker 1>and saying how are you feeling? Do you have symptoms,

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<v Speaker 1>and not just following up that day, but really throughout

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<v Speaker 1>time to make sure that you're really being comprehensive about

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<v Speaker 1>your approach, saying you know, you should probably self isolate

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<v Speaker 1>as a precaution, things like that. So this is, as

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<v Speaker 1>you might imagine, work that is really really resourced intensive.

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<v Speaker 1>So we're talking about I mean, in Massachusetts they want

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<v Speaker 1>to hire about a thousand people you talk folk about

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<v Speaker 1>twelve hundred state employees and had them go over to

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<v Speaker 1>kind of local health departments to help out with this work.

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<v Speaker 1>But you know, it's possible to take a lot more

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<v Speaker 1>people than that. And I spoke with someone Partners and Help,

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<v Speaker 1>which is a group working with Massachusetts on this initiative,

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<v Speaker 1>and you know, the chief medical officer there said she

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<v Speaker 1>wouldn't be mad if they had forty or fifty thousand

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<v Speaker 1>people doing this work. And I think there's some really

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<v Speaker 1>interesting ideas there too, in terms of unemployment being such

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<v Speaker 1>a huge problem these days. I think there's some interesting

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<v Speaker 1>questions about can we get people back to work in

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<v Speaker 1>a way that also resolves this crisis. I think it's

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<v Speaker 1>an interesting idea. It definitely is. The only flip side

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<v Speaker 1>of that would be once things start calming down, what

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<v Speaker 1>do you do with all these people when you don't

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<v Speaker 1>need to keep doing that amount of tracking. But obviously,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, who knows we might have to keep doing

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<v Speaker 1>this for some time to come. The other angle on

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<v Speaker 1>this is the technological angle. There's some apps that are

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<v Speaker 1>sprouting up so you can kind of be tracked on

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<v Speaker 1>the app. I know some people would have a problem

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<v Speaker 1>with being tracked in that way, but that's another part

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<v Speaker 1>of this as well, this contact tracing. And I think

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<v Speaker 1>there's some really interesting applications of technology here. We've seen

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<v Speaker 1>that happen in other countries as well. Obviously, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>there are different culture, role and political norms here in

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<v Speaker 1>the US that you have to consider. But what we

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<v Speaker 1>saw in North Dakota was they took this app that

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<v Speaker 1>they had been using to sort of you know, it's

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<v Speaker 1>called the Bison tracker and they used it. They were

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<v Speaker 1>going to their championship football game in Texas and it

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<v Speaker 1>was a way for fans to kind of track their

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<v Speaker 1>progress on this long drive over to Texas, and they said,

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<v Speaker 1>this might be helpful for tracking COVID cases. So it's

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<v Speaker 1>a way that people can opt in to using this app.

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<v Speaker 1>They can basically track their movements and then you know,

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<v Speaker 1>as they turn out to be sick, they can actually

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<v Speaker 1>if they want to use that information in conjunction with

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<v Speaker 1>the public health officials and try to kind of get

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<v Speaker 1>in touch with people they've maybe potentially been in contact

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<v Speaker 1>with along their time and things like that. And I

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<v Speaker 1>always love a good detail about a bison tracking app

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<v Speaker 1>kind of being repurposed for public health, right, kind of cool.

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<v Speaker 1>They renamed it, by the way, Yeah, they renamed it

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<v Speaker 1>to Care nineteen and reportedly they had more than ten

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<v Speaker 1>thousand downloads in the first thirty six hours. So I mean,

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<v Speaker 1>that's great that people want to get in on that,

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<v Speaker 1>But it is very much an opt in type of

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<v Speaker 1>situation when you're working even with hiring people to do

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<v Speaker 1>like the tedious and time intensive work manually in making

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<v Speaker 1>phone calls and doing on that. Even on that front,

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<v Speaker 1>it's up to the person individually to follow the rules

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<v Speaker 1>there on the other side as well, right, But I

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<v Speaker 1>do think what's interesting about it is we're seeing people feeling,

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<v Speaker 1>like I've touch on ends about kind of this crisis,

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<v Speaker 1>feeling like all they can really do is stay at home,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, for those who are lucky enough to stay

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<v Speaker 1>at home, and this provides a way to sort of

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<v Speaker 1>be actively involved in this public health crisis. I also

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<v Speaker 1>think it's worth noting that we've seen some of the

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<v Speaker 1>big tech companies team up pretty recently and say we

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<v Speaker 1>want to do this kind of work as well, and

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<v Speaker 1>they may have a bigger reach. I think the effort

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<v Speaker 1>that they are collaborating on could reach like, I think

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<v Speaker 1>a third of the population or something like that. So

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<v Speaker 1>there are sort of some bigger kind of tools that

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<v Speaker 1>might be able to be useful in this in this

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<v Speaker 1>yeh on that for an, Apple and Google announce that

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<v Speaker 1>they're trying to build software that they can put into

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<v Speaker 1>the Android and I phones that would help people attract

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<v Speaker 1>these encounters. And I think even in California, Governor Gavin

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<v Speaker 1>Newsom said that he wants to incorporate some type of

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<v Speaker 1>smartphone contact tracing as part of his strategy to lift

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<v Speaker 1>these statewide stay at home orders. So this is gonna

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<v Speaker 1>be something you're gonna hear about a little bit more

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<v Speaker 1>in the coming weeks, just as states and cities are

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<v Speaker 1>really desperate right now to get things back open and

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<v Speaker 1>pumping in again. So everybody's looking at a lot of

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<v Speaker 1>different avenues. Antibody testing was another thing that we're hearing

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<v Speaker 1>a lot about. These are all different things that we're

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<v Speaker 1>looking at to try and track this so that people

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<v Speaker 1>can stay away from hot spots or help avoid creating

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<v Speaker 1>new hotspots. And I think there are like a few

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<v Speaker 1>important caveats those kind of work. So, for one, what

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<v Speaker 1>we're talking about is really preventative strategies. They may not

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<v Speaker 1>translate in the exact same ways to areas that have

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<v Speaker 1>really known widespread hotspots. So I'm thinking of places like

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<v Speaker 1>New York or Seattle may have a different pass forward

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<v Speaker 1>than some places that have been sort of somewhat left

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<v Speaker 1>hard hit as far as we know based on the

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<v Speaker 1>numbers coming out of those play says. I think it's

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<v Speaker 1>also important to consider sort of the fact that testing

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<v Speaker 1>has been a real bottleneck and even these ambitious plans

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<v Speaker 1>coming out of these states, we may not see that,

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<v Speaker 1>at least initially, and you know, hopefully in the long

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<v Speaker 1>run overcome some of these ball next. So you know,

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<v Speaker 1>I talked to the broad in Massachusetts. They took a

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<v Speaker 1>lab that had been doing n A testing work and

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<v Speaker 1>they repurposed it to do COVID nineteen testing kind of

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<v Speaker 1>in March. And you know, I think what's really interesting,

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<v Speaker 1>And I talked about lab director there Is. I said,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, but you guys want to expand so much.

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<v Speaker 1>You're doing two thousand tests a day, you want to

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<v Speaker 1>do ten thousand. What's the barrier to getting there? And

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<v Speaker 1>she said, you know, we don't have enough of these supplies.

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<v Speaker 1>And she was hopeful that they would, by the way,

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<v Speaker 1>but I think that's something we've seen for weeks now,

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<v Speaker 1>for some time now, really be a problem if you

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<v Speaker 1>don't have enough swabs to take people, simple as you

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<v Speaker 1>can't do enough testing. And I think that's a really

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<v Speaker 1>important challenge that you shouldn't underestimate. Am a court health

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<v Speaker 1>reporter at Bloomberg News. Thank you very much for joining us.

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<v Speaker 1>Thanks so much. I'm Oscar Ramirez and this has been

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<v Speaker 1>your daily coronavirus update. Don't forget that. For 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 podcasts.