Tyler Shelby has never been one to shy away from a challenge.
From graduating with honors at Iola High School in 2012, followed by a biochemistry degree from Pittsburg State University, Shelby is now attending medical school at Yale University.
As a third-year graduate student, Shelby is helping oversee an effort many think is crucial to how the country can re-emerge from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Shelby, the son of Iolans David and Kathy Shelby, is a co-director of Yale’s contact tracing program.
He oversees a team of roughly 200 volunteers (mostly students) working tirelessly to interview hundreds of patients who have either been confirmed to have contracted the coronavirus, or have been in direct contact with a COVID-19 patient.
Shelby describes the program as one of three key components to slowing down the pandemic. The others are in developing a vaccine or viable treatment, and through increased testing.
“With most viruses, getting a treatment around quickly can be very challenging,” Shelby explained, particularly for COVID-19, which didn’t exist until late in 2019.
And with any potential vaccine still months away — at least — from becoming reality, that leaves increased testing and contact tracing.
CONTACT tracing has been around for generations, Shelby noted.
“This is nothing new,” he said. “It’s just never been done on this scale before.”
Through contact tracing, interviewers reach out to those who are infected with the coronavirus, and then simply retrace their steps, in particular to find out places they’ve been, and identify those who have come in contact with the COVID-19 patient.
Then, the process repeats, over and over again.
The Centers For Disease Control spells out the process.
Contacts are provided with education, information and support to understand their risk, what they should do to separate themselves from others who are not exposed, and monitor themselves for illness.
While the concept sounds simple, it takes a special skill, notes Shelby, who had been working on contact tracing for an entirely different reason prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, his research for his doctorate degree focused on contact tracing for tuberculosis patients in Uganda.
