EditorialContact tracers in hazmat suits investigate a market where a COVID-positive traveler had visited merchants days earlier in Wuhan, China, Jan. 11, 2021. (Gilles Sabrie/The NewYork Times)
EditorialStatistics on COVID-19 cases are written on a white board for contact tracers in their offices on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota on Dec. 24, 2020. (Victor J. Blue/The New York Times)
EditorialA desk at the Snohomish Health District in Everett, Wash., one of the first American cities first confronted by the coronavirus pandemic, on Jan. 31, 2020. (Chona Kasinger/The New York Times)
EditorialDr. James McAuley, clinical director of the Whiteriver Indian Hospital, which serves the Apache community, in Whiteriver, Ariz., on July 8, 2020. (Tomás Karmelo Amaya/The New York Times)
EditorialDr. Paul Persaud, Paterson's top health official, holds a weekly meeting with the city's contact tracers in Paterson, N.J., May 11, 2020. (Bryan Anselm/The New York Times)