Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Patchwork Of Glitchy, Little-Used Contact Tracing Apps Hobbles Efforts To Safely Reopen
Local officials in Teton County, Wyo., home to Yellowstone National Park and resort town Jackson Hole, want to prevent a new wave of coronavirus cases as the area reopens. They decided to lean on technology. The county signed up for a location-tracking app developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to help accelerate contact tracing, the process of notifying and isolating people who might have been exposed to the virus. But as tourists stream into Yellowstone鈥攔angers spotted license plates from 41 states the day it reopened in mid-May鈥攖he app isn鈥檛 ready. It can鈥檛 accurately track location, it鈥檚 missing key features and its developers have struggled to protect sensitive user data. (Winkler and Haggin, 6/22)
When Scott Harkey decided to venture out for a meal recently, he made a reservation, drove to the restaurant鈥攁nd then stopped at the entrance for a staffer to take his temperature. Then another staffer handed him a bottle of hand sanitizer. And the servers waiting on him all wore masks. 鈥淭hey looked like ninjas,鈥 said Mr. Harkey, a 38-year-old advertising executive in Phoenix. 鈥淚t was strange. 鈥漌elcome to the new way of dining out. As coronavirus lockdowns ease, some people are cautiously inching back to restaurants and bars. But the experience is far different from what it used to be. (Needleman, 6/22)
When the online learning company Chegg started working remotely in March, Nathan Schultz, a senior executive, was convinced that productivity would plummet 15 to 20 percent. Hoping to keep his employees on task, Mr. Schultz tried to recreate the high-touch style of management that had served him well throughout his career. He set up a Slack channel with his two closest deputies, where they began communicating incessantly, even as they spent hours a day in the same Zoom meetings. He began regularly checking in on many of the other members of his team. (Gelles, 6/23)
The state approved 48 providers to reopen Monday, with another 100 given reopening dates.聽About 4% of child care operators recently told the state they won鈥檛 be able to reopen under the new health and safety restrictions. But the Massachusetts advocacy group Daycares United reports that about 1 in 5 of its members said they鈥檒l have to close indefinitely. (Jung, 6/22)
Making plans for summer in the time of the coronavirus pandemic is a parenting dilemma. States, cities and towns are reopening as at least a dozen states have seen record highs of new COVID-19 cases. Some camps are closed, others are open. Some families are still quarantining and others are hosting birthday parties and sleepovers. The messaging that kids don't seem to be as severely impacted by COVID-19 as adults but they do seem to be asymptomatic carriers of the virus can be confusing for parents too. (Kindelan, 6/23)