
Contact tracers have a problem: People won't answer calls from unknown numbers - ilamont
https://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2020/04/18/contact-tracing-massachusetts-covid19-coronavirus
======
pwg
> Second, many of the people listed as close contacts aren't answering their
> phones when a contact tracer calls. Project organizers say they realize that
> many people may assume the calls are spam or a hoax.

Yep, the direct result of the robocall scourge.

The MA folks need to do a couple things:

1) _do not_ place these calls as robo-calls, they need to come direct from a
human

2) leave a voicemail, with details that a robocall would not have, I.e., whom
the close contact was, when, the request to self quarantine, etc., and a
request to call back including a call-back number (which _really_ should match
the number shown as the caller-id number).

~~~
rini17
Deaf people won't react to voicemail either.

They communicate by texting, and I don't see why everyone, not only deaf,
can't have an option to participate by texting/sms.

~~~
pwg
That is a fair point, however, not all phone numbers are capable of receiving
text messages (landline numbers typically are not able to receive text
messages), so texting would only work for those numbers that are capable of
receiving texts.

But if the number is capable of receiving texts, the caller should also send a
text message to the number as well.

