Mass gatherings, erosion of trust upend coronavirus control

Health experts need newly infected people to remember and recount everyone y've interacted with over several days in order to alert ors who may have been exposed, and prevent m from spreing disease furr. But that process, kwn as contact tracing, relies on people kwing who y’ve been in contact with — a daunting task if y’ve been to a mass garing.

And process relies on something that may be suddenly be in especially short supply: Trust in government.

“se events that are happening w are furr threats to trust we need,” said Dr. Sandro Galea, dean of Boston University School of Public Health. “If we do t have that, I worry our capacity to control new outbreaks becomes more limited,” he said.

Government officials have been hoping to continue reopening businesses, churches and or organizations after months of stay-at-home orders and or infection-prevention measures. But health experts also hoped that any reopening would be accompanied by widespre testing, contact tracing and isolation to prevent new waves of illness from beginning.

Over past week, protests sparked by

It’s unclear if protests mselves will trigger large new outbreaks. protests were outside, where infections don’t spre as reily as indoors. Also, many of protesters were wearing masks, and much of contact was likely less-hazardous “transient” moments of people moving around, passing each or, said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert at Vanderbilt University.

But, still, experts worry that public efforts to contain disease in future

In Los Angeles, city’s mayor anunced Saturday that COVID-19 testing centers were being closed because of safety concerns related to violent protests. Testing in Minneapolis will be affected because some of clinics that provide service have been damd in protests, according to a city government spokesperson.

Reduced testing could “be giving virus ar he start,” Schaffner said.

And contract tracing, which is only just getting going in several states, is an even bigger concern. It involves people who work for or with health departments asking intimate questions about where a person has been and who y've been talking to — and getting full, truthful answers in return.

“In this current environment which has enhanced or brought forth a mistrust of governmental authority, it might make m disinclined to speak with anyone in government,” Schaffner said.

That is especially true in

In a press conference Saturday, Minnesota Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington used term “contact tracing” when describing an investigation into arrested protesters re. He said goal is to “see if re are crime or white supremacy organizations that have played a role” and “to understand how do we go after m, legally,” Harrington said.

But Harrington's use of “contact tracing” by law enforcement may complicate job of help health workers as y try to track virus's spre, some experts said.

“That was an abuse of word 'contact tracing.' That is t what contact tracing is,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Contact tracing is a service to patients and ir contacts to provide services for patients and warning for contacts. It has thing to do with police activity. thing," said Frieden, who currently president of Resolve to Save Lives, a nprofit that works to prevent epidemics.

Galea said he hopes many people will separate in ir minds contact tracing done by public health workers from crime investigations by police. But, he ded, “I do think sometimes it's difficult to make a distinction when you feel marginalized by, and targeted by, entire government.”