President Donald Trump sought to downplay the numbers associated with COVID-19 in the United States — which have passed 2 million confirmed cases and are nearing 120,000 lives lost — by arguing that the soaring national count was simply the result of superior testing.
After more than two months at home, librarian Lisa Fagundes misses managing her sci-fi book collection so much, she feels she’s in withdrawal, longing to see new books, touch them, smell them. “It’s like a disease,” she said, laughing.
Instead, she’s been learning to combat a different disease: COVID-19. While libraries are closed, Fagundes is one of dozens of librarians training to become a contact tracer, calling people who have been exposed to the coronavirus and asking them to self-quarantine at home so they don’t spread it further.
Librarians are an obvious choice for the job, said Fagundes, who usually works at the information desk of the San Francisco Main Library. They’re curious, they’re tech-savvy, and they’re really good at getting people they barely know to open up.
“Because, a lot of times, patrons come up to you and they’re like, ‘Uhh, I’m looking for a book —’ and
