I believe self-directed contact tracing is the solution to stopping the pandemic quickly. China has proven that contact tracing in general works to identify and quarantine all infected or exposed to halt the spread of the coronavirus. They did it by sending thousands of healthcare workers from around China to go door-to-door in and around Wuhan City within the Hubei Province. No one in the western world ever expected the virus to propagate around the planet and were caught unprepared. China and other East-Asian countries, such as Viet Nam and Japan, were ready since they experienced the SARS outbreak in 2002.
As it sounds, self-directed contact tracing (SDCT) is more of a distributed approach than China’s government-directed, healthcare-led strategy. The key to SDCT is communication, initially for universal awareness, then through signs to distinguish who is infectious or expose from those who are healthy, and last to provide support to home-bound quarantined folks.
Self-directed contact tracing does not demand the hiring and training of large teams of healthcare workers. It does not require the development of new technology or apps. Technically, it does not need a vaccine, though that could help to end the last few cases. All SDCT needs to be successful is to be communicated widely, and its basic steps followed by everyone.
I optimistically believe we could contain the coronavirus worldwide within a week. World leaders could walk citizens through the easy steps of this simple solution through public announcements. Most people with symptoms could call their doctors or clinics within 48-hours of the state of address. Perhaps the leaders could minimize hold times by evenly distributing calls throughout the day by assigning call hours based on the first letter of each person’s name. Those likely with coronavirus symptoms could begin contact tracing immediately after hanging up with the doctor. Additional levels of contact tracing, exposed people calling people they were recently near, could happen over a few more days. Everyone with symptoms or exposure could self-quarantine within a week.
The best part about self-directed contact tracing is that it could easily work in countries with inadequate coronavirus testing and limited healthcare facilities. Exposed people could self-quarantine for fourteen days straight. If they do not present symptoms after that period, then they could assume they have not contracted the disease and may return to regular activity.
The sooner self-directed contact tracing is embraced and communicated, the sooner we can all get back to work and right the world economy. If you are symptomatic, please use the SDCT steps immediately. Otherwise, please share the one-minute simple coronavirus solution video with everyone you know. Last, please write your local government representative to consider adopting the SDCT approach and provide them the one-minute video link or URL.
Take care and be safe!
Jeff
#SimpleCoronavirusSolution #SelfDirectedContactTracing #StopThePandemic