Australian Reports of the Virus Spread

[Pushka]

Now yes common sense and fact checking would come into play, but if one is given bald faced lies there is only so much you can do. Maybe this is one reason why Dan Andrews has indicated that they will be hiring even more contact tracers (ie so they can check for lies more thoroughly).

Oh come on, their Employers should have been contacted to check! They were surprised they had not been contacted earlier! Common sense? Tracers? They had one job to do. Trace Positive Covid patients. Meatworks, cruise ships and retirement homes have been listed on worldwide Covid news sites as places ripe for cluster outbreaks. Bingo.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Well they did assume he told the truth.I would also have thought they should have contacted his work to check that story of non attendance particularly as meatworks OS have had some horrendous clusters.

Well that would also require that he told them accurately where he worked, and the type of work he did. He may or may not. As he was working through a Labour Hire firm he may also have worked at more than one business.

But yes I would assume that the employment checking may have been amended somewhat now. More contact tracers to be hired now would allow more thorough checking.

Most people would care about the health of their co-workers. We can assume that this particular person only had a regard for their own interests and not the health and lives of others. We know from others such as the Aspen couple that such people do exist.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Oh come on, their Employers should have been contacted to check! They were surprised they had not been contacted earlier!

Cedar Meats was not actually his employer.

However yes I fully understand their surprise.

Common sense? Tracers? They had one job to do. Trace Positive Covid patients. Meatworks, cruise ships and retirement homes have been listed on worldwide Covid news sites as places ripe for cluster outbreaks. Bingo.

So you know then that the worker actually told the tracers as to where he had worked? He lied about when he last worked. He may have also lied about the type of work or location.

He was employed through a Labour Agency and so may have worked at different businesses.

Meatworks, cruise ships and retirement homes have been listed on worldwide Covid news sites as places ripe for cluster outbreaks. Bingo.

(My bolding)

Bingo? Yes if the contact tracers had a functioning crystal ball.

Smithfield Foods was closed on 15th April (announced that it would close closed on 12th April ) due to a Covid 19 Outbreak.

The first story published on the web about a worker from the meatworks testing positive was on 26th March

Smithfield Foods employee tests positive for coronavirus

The employee in question is being quarantined for 14 days with pay, a spokesman said.

www.argusleader.com

This story was not announcing that there was an outbreak at the meatworks and the tone of the story was essentially nothing to see here, the business will be carrying on....

In early April rumblings started to get louder and louder about several meatworks in the USA with complaints about various plants being lodged. Only about then did the media attention start to grow.

The Cedar Meats Patient 1 was tested on 2 April. So the when tracers would most likely have been interviewing Patient 1, meatworks were not listed on news sites worldwide as places ripe for cluster outbreaks.

 

[RooFlyer]

You would expect the contact tracers to act on what they are told.

Well, given the seriousness of the task they are charged with, I would have thought a bit of extra curiosity and lateral thinking wouldn't go astray. Like it is now - yet the early Vic cases weren't the first .. lots of 'lessons' in place before then.

The emphasis in Australia has mainly been about getting people to voluntarily comply. In the main this is the type of society that I prefer to live in.

Emphasis yes, total strategy - definitely not. Its not the society I want either, but when there is a pandemic on, the rules change ... like compulsory isolation etc etc.

Are contact tracers to be expected to treat everything that they are told be be a lie and to investigate every possible scenario?

No, and that hyperbole just weakens the argument. They should be professional and consider that 1) memory is fallible and they must be sceptical of memory and 2) people may lie for innocent or malicious reasons and that possibility has to be factored in. They are not trying to trace some kid's movement to see who might have bought the bike he nicked - but to try to find all those who may have been infected with, and might continue to infect a potentially lethal disease.

I don't understand the lengths going to to defend Andrews' strategy and the Vic Govt's actions in this instance. All the governments have and will be making mistakes. I just hope each learns from the mistakes going forward - full disclosure is important in that.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

1) memory is fallible and they must be sceptical of memory

Yes agreed. But an answer to a question based on did you work at all in the last 14 days is not really going to be a memory issue is it?

Forgetting some people you met, particularly more casual ones, may well be. As would be say to list every location you went to.


And I am not really defending Andrews, but the contact tracers. I also did note that some had questioned why contact tracing needed to be enhanced.

They have been caught out by someone lying to to them, and no doubt they will have learnt from this and will have tightened up on their cross checking.

 

[Pushka]

I do remember I was critical of the Health Dept not releasing many details of the first couple from Wuhan being released as it seemed that in their first few days they did a lot of visiting. This was back in late January. Turns out they did not speak a word of English and Health Dept had to spend days with them and a good translator trying to unravel their movements. I guess they learnt the lesson early to keep on questioning.

 

[SydneySwan]

Can contact tracers use waterboarding in a pandemic?

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Well, given the seriousness of the task they are charged with, I would have thought a bit of extra curiosity and lateral thinking wouldn't go astray. Like it is now - yet the early Vic cases weren't the first .. lots of 'lessons' in place before then.

(My bolding)

If you mean meatworkers, the cough hit fan essentially from early April on with meatplants around the world . Patient 1 with the 3 week delay was 2 tested on April.

There seems to be a fair bit on hindsight in judging the actions of the first lot of contact tracers. Remember too that for the vast majority of them that they are very new to it and their would be very few "old hands". For most it is a new career for them. It would be great if they were all 100% proficient and infallible, but given their time and experience in the role and those that support them I don't think that is a very realistic expectation. I mean even finding truly adequate trainers and mentors for the staff would be a huge problem.

It is a learning curve, and the thing about Covid 19 so far is that timelines on everything have all be so very, very compressed. So contact tracers are basically learning on the job.

 

[woodborer]

Oh come on, their Employers should have been contacted to check! They were surprised they had not been contacted earlier! Common sense? Tracers? They had one job to do. Trace Positive Covid patients. Meatworks, cruise ships and retirement homes have been listed on worldwide Covid news sites as places ripe for cluster outbreaks. Bingo.

Because there's been hundreds of trained contact tracers just sitting around waiting for their day to come.

 

[Pushka]

Because there's been hundreds of trained contact tracers just sitting around waiting for their day to come.

Apparently quite a few in SA to lead the team.

Be prepared

No Cookies | The Advertiser

 

[drron]

Then SA really is the leader.They were prepared and had things stockpiled.Fantastic.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Apparently quite a few in SA to lead the team.

Be prepared

No Cookies | The Advertiser
View attachment 217649

Yes, though I do not think that they are the SA contact tracers.

Dr Louise Flood, Director of SA Health’s Communicable Disease Control Branch, indicated on 1 April that the SA Contact tracing team was to be expanded with 150 contact tracers, and another 150 on standby if required.

All states had various levels of contact tracers as there are ongoing diseases communicable diseases like measles etc to be managed and for which contact tracers are used. Covid 19 though has seen that all expanded. So new staff to be trained in all states.

 

[Pushka]

Yes, though I do not think that they are the SA contact tracers.

Dr Louise Flood, Director of SA Health’s Communicable Disease Control Branch, indicated on 1 April that the SA Contact tracing team was to be expanded with 150 contact tracers, and another 150 on standby if required.

All states had various levels of contact tracers as there are ongoing diseases communicable diseases like measles etc to be managed and for which contact tracers are used. Covid 19 though has seen that all expanded. So new staff to be trained in all states.

I guess some tracers were more effective than others. They are all part of SA Health.

 

[get me outta here]

It has been found that torture does not actually work in getting reliable information, sorry.

Can contact tracers use waterboarding in a pandemic?

 

[RooFlyer]

Can contact tracers use waterboarding in a pandemic?

Nah, common sense and thoughtfulness is probably sufficient.

 

[N860CR]

The Pandemic is dead and buried at Bunnings (Capalaba QLD), it's almost business as usual
There is still a marked corridor to the check out but the watcher is back to just watching ; no more cleaning of the touchscreens and eftpos machine , not even hand sanitiser nearby

That is surprising. Getting into a bunnings in inner-city Sydney is like entering the White House. I’m quite sure the additional contact caused by the staff who think they’re infectious disease specialists has actually increased the level of risk.

 

[SydneySwan]

That is surprising. Getting into a bunnings in inner-city Sydney is like entering the White House. I’m quite sure the additional contact caused by the staff who think they’re infectious disease specialists has actually increased the level of risk.

Not true as I believe that the White House is now insisting on face masks (except for you know who). Definitely less customers and staff at inner-city Bunnings now wearing face masks and it certainly isn't mandatory.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

I guess some tracers were more effective than others.

Well the way I understand what the article you provided some people are not actually contact tracers at all, bur rather have other important responsibilities.

They are all part of SA Health.

Are you sure? SA Health and SA Patholgy look to be two different organisations.

Home | SA Health

SA Health: Your official portal to public health services, hospitals, health information and health careers in South Australia

www.sahealth.sa.gov.au

Our Organisation - SA Pathology

I am sure that all the people mentioned in the article are most competent at what they do, but the people mentioned in the article are not contact tracers. I was just making the point that SA has always had a team set up for contact tracing and that they are in the Communicable Disease Control Branch (CDCB). Other states will all have similar such staff on a permanent basis, but I would also imagine that all states have boosted staff numbers in whatever their relevant branch is.

Communicable Disease Control Branch | SA Health

The Communicable Disease Control Branch (CDCB) aims to reduce the incidences of communicable and infectious diseases in SA

www.sahealth.sa.gov.au

The SA contact tracers are located in this branch and they have been increased from 140 staff to 290 staff with another 150 in reserve (ie 440 in total that can be drawn on). That was on 1 st April, it may or may not be bigger by now.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=223097938900441

Whereas SA Pathology is a different organisation with other important responsibilities. In essence with Covid 19 it is mainly involved with testing such as was discussed in the interesting article you posted.



(PS: SA has done a great job. Personally I think that all states and the Federal Government has done a great job. No government has been perfect, but on the whole all have been very good. I don't expect perfection whether it be from the governments, or from staff who are working to control Covid 19 in this country).

 

[Flashback]

I'm surprised this is something they're only just coming up with, we've had it in place here for test results for at least 7 years, if not longer.

How an SMS bot helped NSW Health cut COVID-19 test result wait times

And other lessons from the pandemic.

www.itnews.com.au

 

[Pushka]

I'm surprised this is something they're only just coming up with, we've had it in place here for test results for at least 7 years, if not longer.

How an SMS bot helped NSW Health cut COVID-19 test result wait times

And other lessons from the pandemic.

www.itnews.com.au

Text results have been in SA for a while but mostly Pathology tests are not as simple as a Yes/No result.