9.2.2020 RAC Bay County Work Group Leadership Meeting

Report:

The 9.2.2020 RAC Bay County Community Update was submitted and the top line overview was discussed, with an emphasis on the data on pediatric and youth cases. 

On September 1st, the positivity rate for new cases in Panama City was 10.82%, however the positivity rate for new cases among those younger than 18 years old was 13.9% (9/1)

The trend since the reopening has been that the greatest increase in cases among young people is in the 15 to 24 yr old age group (see the attached graph.)

The Hillsborough County Public Schools COVID-19 case dashboard was included in the report for discussion as a possible best notification practice: Hillsborough County Public Schools Dashboard (9.2.2020)

Discussion:

Would it be useful for parents to have a site where they could upload/post their concerns?

Two cases at the schools have not had any contact tracing done at all. It was the parent of the index case that forced the disclosure of the circumstances surrounding the 91 people quarantined as a result of a positive case on a school bus. School employees are notified by parents about exposures. It is not well organized. The school just began hurricane Michael repairs because the teachers and administrators could not modify the school for COVID due to lingering repairs. Walton and Leon County currently release the number of students affected and faculty associated with each school that have tested positive.  

Contacting the 14 relevant Judicial District Medical Examiners would yield the most authoritative information about deaths. They are backlogged.

There is concern for consistency in how data is released.

It is important to be able to get the perception of risk as close to the actual risk as possible. There are approximately 4x as many asymptomatic cases in the general population. It would be good to reach multi-generational households w elderly.  

The possibility of having a Social Media Platform for voluntary reporting of cases was discussed.  The problem with Facebook is that someone needs to monitor it.

Safe2 Discussion with Dr. Jamison Day

Safe2 is an exposure notification app. There is no data collected on individuals. Safe2 tracks proximity of phones. The use of burner phones that are distributed to people without phones does not require registering a person or getting personal or medical information from a person using the app. Symptoms entered into the phone and proximity to other phones are used to create Safe Scores and heat maps that help individuals make decisions about places that are safe versus places that need to be avoided.  

Can we target Safe2 in emerging hotspots?

If social media is giving hotspot indications, without the geospatial data connection it won't get to the physical connections. Safe2 won't help with network analysis.

The Trust Network implementation plan will engage existing social networks. The Initial stakeholders that attend the September 16th Kick-off will each reach out to 2 community leaders who will engage their existing networks. The community leaders will be trained on how to teach others about the Safe2 app. 

Discussion with Christina Eyre Regarding Safe2 communications materials. She presented the Onboarding Safe2 Powerpoint for discussion. 

• It can be used on Android now. Christina asked for emails of people who would be getting the app first.
• The privacy features need to be at the beginning. People are hearing about tracing apps that do not have the privacy features Safe2 has, so they need to understand that from the outset. 
• Each step of the implementation plan requires a trusted person who has experience with the app to explain why it makes sense to use it. The opening to any presentation about Safe 2 to the community needs to be a personal evaluation of why it brings value to the individual and the community.
• The slide presentation will be localized and tailored to the core level stakeholders first, then modified for Community Leader Trainings and again for community presentations. 
• As with other technology we have introduced in communities, we need to watch how people initially interact with it on their phones to see what is intuitively obvious to most people, what people find interesting or exciting, and what challenges or turn-offs they express. If they are receiving a new phone at the same time as the app that is on it, then we have to be able to troubleshoot problems with the phones as well as with the app that is on the phone. It takes time for our team to get that familiarity. 
• Date of Kick-Off pushed out to September 16th.

Action Item: Research information on the lingering effects of COVID and data on the numbers of people who have recovered from COVID.

Action Item: Emails of Work Group Leadership Team who want the app on their phones to experiment with need to be sent to Christina. Work Group Leads need the app in their phones as soon as possible so they have an experience with it that they can speak to others about.