Joe Biden Proposes Hiring at Least 100,000 ‘Culturally Competent’ Contact Tracers

Joe Biden’s website states he wants to hire 100,000 “culturally competent” contact tracers as part of his plan to “beat” the coronavirus.

The plan said a Biden administration will “ensure all Americans have access to regular, reliable, and free testing.”

Under that section, one point read:

Establish a U.S. Public Health Jobs Corps to mobilize at least 100,000 Americans across the country with support from trusted local organizations in communities most at risk to perform culturally competent approaches to contact tracing and protecting at-risk populations.

Biden did not elaborate on what the “culturally competent approaches” would entail, but California contact tracers began receiving training in “cultural humility” in September, according to the Institute for Global Health Sciences (IGHS).

Contact tracers ask questions related to topics that can be sensitive, including health, work, living arrangements and food resources. Public health communications require a balance between providing clear instruction, asking productive questions and listening empathetically. If those exposed to the coronavirus are to quarantine successfully, contact tracers must successfully strike this balance. The balance is made even more important, and even more challenging to find, when racial, ethnic and economic diversity are at play.

According to the IGHS, “cultural humility became an area of important focus.”

The Biden document said he will “implement mask mandates nationwide” by pressuring governors and mayors to “step up in a time of crisis.”

Biden said he wants “every American to wear a mask when they are around people outside their household.”

If governors refuse to issue his mask mandates, he said he would go to mayors and county executives to create such orders.

During the campaign, Biden initially floated a federal mask mandate before he admitted it was unconstitutional.

Dr. Zeke Emanuel, a Biden coronavirus adviser, told MarketWatch he believes it will take a year for things to “get back to normal” after a vaccine is released.

“I think it’ll be closer to November [2021], closer toward the end of the year,” he said.

“But it’ll probably be enough to begin opening colleges and universities [and] schools, again depending on how we distribute this thing, and how effective we can be on that.”

Kyle Olson is a reporter for Breitbart News. He is also host of “The Kyle Olson Show,” syndicated on Michigan radio stations on Saturdays. Listen to segments on YouTube or download full podcast episodes. Follow him on Twitter, like him on Facebook, and follow him on Parler.