What To Say When Calling Contacts

Question

I have my list of contacts and am ready to call, what am I supposed to say?  

Short Answer

Excellent question! The assumption is that you have already followed all of the precursor steps to self-directed contract tracing:

• Started to feel sick, so took your temperature
• Called your doctor who asked several questions, then told you to go to the hospital for COVID-19 testing
• Created a list of all the people you could remember being near (within 6 feet) over the past two weeks

And now you are ready to make the calls. If so, you could follow this script.

“Hi, this is (enter your name), I started feeling sick today, called my doctor, and she thinks I may have the coronavirus. I am leaving for the hospital for COVID-19 testing after I notify everyone I have been near in the last two weeks. You are one of those people, so you have been exposed to the virus. Please quarantine yourself immediately, and anyone else that lives with you, until I have received my test results. If you do not hear from me by tomorrow at this time, then you and your family or roommates should plan on self-quarantining at home for the next two weeks.

Please visit SimpleCoronavirusSolution.com/solution/ and follow the ‘Person Exposed to Virus’ instructions. I sure hope you do not catch it. They say only 1 in 50 exposed people usually do, so the odds are in your favor.”

Long Answer

As you can tell from the short answer, it is best to be direct with your friends, family, and colleagues when you call them about potentially having the coronavirus. Please try not to feel sorry for infecting others. It is genuinely not your fault as long as you were following recommended procedures of social distancing, washing your hands, etcetera. The virus is invisible to the human eye and very transmittable.    

If you feel embarrassed or afraid to call, remember that you are helping to stop the spread of the virus and ultimately saving lives. The majority of people you will be calling are either family members or friends, so they will more than likely understand.  

Benefits

Some of the overarching benefits of self-directed contact tracing over the current healthcare-lead approach include: 

• You can be open with your friends and family and share that you have the disease. HIPPA laws do not restrict you from directly sharing your personal information, meaning the fact that you are sick.  
• Neither you nor any of your friends have to sign waivers or consent to some long online terms and conditions agreement to save lives.  
• App developers do not have to try to find ways to skirt smartphone privacy laws to share registered infected GPS coordinates with people you were near. These apps may become valuable tools to reduce flare-ups, but I caution that GPS is not 100% accurate. I know from personal experience. I used the Find My iPhone service once, and it said the missing phone was in the middle of our yard when it was on the opposite side of our house over eighty feet away.   
• You are more likely to reach your friends, family members, and colleagues since they will recognize your phone number.

On the flip side, healthcare professionals may be better at crisis counseling during the calls. Telling someone that they may have the coronavirus is a sensitive topic. Remember how worried you felt upon realizing you had similar symptoms? And, how much more so when the doctor said you needed COVID-19 testing? Please be direct but delicate and understanding with your contacts. If you cannot console them, please recommend they call a healthcare provider to coach them through the panic or provide crisis counseling resources. 

Take care and stay safe!

Jeff

#SelfDirectedContactTracing #MakingTheCalls