Could you help me understand what public health departments’ roles are in this pandemic? Do they have the infrastructure and support they need to do their jobs right now?
Chris Kemp, M.S.:
Public health departments DO NOT have the infrastructure, support, or resources to respond appropriately to the pandemic. In an ideal world, a single positive case is reported to local health departments and begins a cascade of events that includes strict quarantine of the individual and comprehensive contact tracing, during which every person the positive individual came into close contact with (say, 15 minutes or more in an enclosed space) is identified, contacted and also quarantined.
[As a society,] we have failed to do this on every level, and we're still not doing it. For the first weeks/month of the pandemic, we didn't even have enough available tests. Other countries -- Iceland, New Zealand -- have shown that it is possible to respond appropriately by committing significant resources to the effort.