One of the keys to the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s strategy to slowing the spread of the COVID-19 virus was to use contact tracing – identifying people who have come into contact with another person who had contracted the virus. That person would be asked who they had contact with and precautions or treatments would be advised.
However, the state has less than 1,700 contact tracers after setting a goal of hiring 4,500 last spring and many people contacted aren’t cooperating.
In the meantime, coronavirus cases are surging.
PennLive investigative reporter Wallace McKelvey recently wrote extensively about contact tracing and joins us on Thursday’s Smart Talk.
Lancaster author discusses his book on monuments to Confederate general and their influence today
Lt. General Nathan Bedford Forrest was a cavalry officer in the Confederate army during the Civil War, who became legendary in much of the South. He also was the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan after the war.
Lancaster native Connor Towne O’Neill stumbled upon Forrest at a time when Confederate monuments were being removed because they were seen as symbols of a racist past.
O’Neill appears on Thursday’s Smart Talk to discuss how Forrest’s memory is still being felt today and his new book Down Along With That Devil’s Bones – A Reckoning with Monuments, memory, and the Legacy of White Supremacy.
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