Minority US contract tracers build trust in diverse cities

SAN DIEGO (AP) — When a contact tracer called the Iraqi woman to say her 18-year-old daughter tested positive for the coronavirus and could quarantine for free in a hotel, the woman panicked — recalling the family's terror of risking separation forever during their flight from Baghdad after a bomb killed her brother.

The contact tracer, Iraqi immigrant Ethar Kakoz, had made a similar harrowing journey using smugglers to get out of Iraq after her parents were told she could be kidnapped. So Kakoz came up with a safe way for the teen to isolate herself at home in the San Diego suburb of El Cajon, knowing the mother couldn't bear to be away from her daughter.

Kakoz is among a growing legion of ethnically and racially diverse contact tracers hired by local health departments to help immigrants, refugees and minorities protect themselves during a pandemic that has disproportionately affected people of color. One call at a time from Southern California to Tennessee, the contract tracers are trying to build confidence in America's public health system.

They have fluency in a multitude of languages, helping them bridge cultural divides and knock down misinformation about the virus circulating among immigrant, Black and Hispanic communities. The challenges include President Donald Trump downplaying it and his declaration that top government scientists are “idiots.”

Contact tracers like Kakoz who are able to connect with people mark a rare success in a contact tracing effort that has largely been a failure nationwide.

While many rich countries like South Korea use extensive contact tracing to contain the virus and reopen their economies, the U.S. has no national program, and local efforts have struggled to get people to cooperate and keep up with all the cases.

Concerns about privacy abound among many Americans, but...