In July 2020, the US Census took me on as an enumerator. For an average of 16 hours/week for the last seven weeks, I have gone door-to-door interviewing real, live people at their doors, asking questions. Some of them have been COVID-positive. Here is my experience.
For starters, five weeks into the Census I got tested (nasal swab) and tested negative. This, despite some of my interviewees stating that they had COVID behind their masks and any number of people who refused to mask up. Here’s what we do.
We wear our masks. We spritz hand sanitizer on our hands. We go to the interview and do our jobs. We return to our cars and spritz again.
In some cases, we interview multiple people without spritzing.
We carry masks and offer them to people whom we interview. Some of them accept, some do not. Those who reject, we stay six feet away from. Being Midwesterners, that is not considered rude.
You may also be aware that thousands of people demonstrated in every city after the George Floyd protests. No spike took place. Why can’t we have groups meet live at parks or outdoors while the weather is nice, provided that we are all masked up?
Those of us without severe pre-existing conditions may be able to do our part in person this time around.