HJNO Jul/Aug 2020

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS I  JUL / AUG 2020 11 self-quarantine, or the ability to work from home.This is why the resource coordination piece of our contact tracing work matters. We do not just instruct those who have been exposed to get tested and self-quarantine, we give them the support they need to be able to do it. These are tough choices we are ask- ing Louisianans to make in a time of great uncertainty. All I can say is, these individual actions are that important to public health. Editor What are the most important things you think the public has learned about pub- lic health that they didn’t know before the pandemic? Did you ever think terms such as “R0” or “social distancing” would enter the public consciousness in the way they have? Sokol  I definitely never expected we would all end up talking about R0. I think the most important concept the public has learned about is disease transmission—how disease spreads, the personal risks associated with disease, and how to protect yourself and those around you. This was not on every- one’s radar prior to COVID-19. Givenmy line of work, I amone who, pre- COVID-19, frequently disinfectedmy hands after shaking someone’s hand, touching a doorknob, etc. For many more, this is now a new normal. We knowmany people in this country historically have struggled with good hand hygiene. Thankfully, this appears to be changing, and I hope it is here to stay. Editor  Before COVID-19, how likely did you think it would be that you would live and work through a pandemic in your lifetime? Sokol  For those of us in public health, a respiratory virus pandemic was always a matter of when, not if. We saw hints of it with SARS and MERS. What has surprised me is the impact and speed of COVID-19. I have heard it described as a tidal wave, and that resonates in a state where we did see such a rapid rise after our first case. Editor  Dr. Anthony Fauci said in March, “You don’t make the timeline; the virus makes the timeline.” What makes tracking this virus so unpredictable, and has anything surprised you? Sokol What makes tracking COVID-19 so challenging is just how much we are still learning every day about this virus. Initially, everyone thought the period of infectious- ness startedwhen symptoms began, and that only those with symptoms could spread the disease to others. We now know you can be infectious and transmitting COVID-19 two days before you show any symptoms. This is what guided our decision to incorporate testing for asymptomatic individuals in con- gregate settings into our guidance and state testing plan. n Contact tracing is a decades-old fundamental public health tool that relies on identifying and contacting individuals whomay have unknowingly been exposed to an infectious disease.