Here is what Minnesota’s contact tracers are asking
As we have noted before, Minnesota’s Department of Health has been oddly reluctant to reveal what questions its Covid-19 contact tracers have been asking people. As I wrote last week:
Presumably the Department of Health’s contact tracers are calling thousands of people each week and asking them these questions. Given this, their desire to hide the questions that were being asked so widely was always strange.
People’s livelihoods hinge on the decisions made based – allegedly – on the data these interviewers are collecting. In the Twin Cities, 94 restaurants have closed in 2020, many after being shut, opened at lower capacity, then shut again by Gov. Walz. Minnesotans deserve greater transparency from the state government than they are getting.
Fortunately, a second contact tracer has come forward and shared the full list of questions they are given to ask, as of December 14th. In the interests of transparency, and with apologies for the small size of he screenshots, the full list can be found below:
Call Log/Interviewer Info:
Tennessen/Call Recording statement:
Demographic Information:
Living Setting- Private Residence:
Living Setting- Hotel/Motel, Long-term Care, Group Home, Homeless/Shelter, Homeless Unsheltered, College/University, Work Dormitory:
Living Setting: Jail, Prison, Other Correctional Setting:
Living setting: Other
Illness History:
Underlying Health Conditions
Exposures: Travel through Gym
Exposures: Community Event/Mass Gathering through Source case:
Release from Isolation
Infectious Period: Determine infectious period, Healthcare visits, congregate living, and travel during infectious period:
Assess Contacts- Occupation: Healthcare, Long Term Care, Residential Treatment Facility
Assess Contacts- Occupation: Shelter, Group Home
Assess Contacts- Occupation: Corrections Setting
Assess Contacts- Occupation: College/University, School K-12, Child Care Center
Assess Contacts- Occupation: Organized Sports
Assess Contacts- Occupation: Other
Assess Contacts- Occupation: Additional workplaces, Workplace Follow-up Call Log
Assess sports, school, childcare, university attendance during infectious period: Sports and Child Care
Assess sports, school, childcare, university attendance during infectious period: K-12
Assess sports, school, childcare, university attendance during infectious period: Youth day camp or Youth Overnight Camp:
Assess sports, school, childcare, university attendance during infectious period: Adult Day Center:
Assess sports, school, childcare, university attendance during infectious period: Other
Assess sports, school, childcare, university attendance during infectious period: College/University
Exclusion Letter:
Assess Contacts- Household and Social Contacts
Contact Specifics: Household, Social, or Workplace Contact
Contact Specifics: Create Contact, Contact Tracing Comments
Exposure Notification Application
Essential Services (only if case is still in isolation)
Prevention (only if case is still in isolation)
Demographics and Isolation Address (DPS statement/isolation address is only if case is still in isolation)
Interview Wrap Up, notes
John Phelan is an economist at the Center of the American Experiment.