When you pick up the phone, you do not want to hear Kaylee Langgang on the other end.

Not because she isn't kind. She is. But because her job is to deliver bad news.

I try and sound as nice as possible just because it is not the most pleasant thing to hear that you

have coronavirus. So you're telling them they have COVID first? Yes. Some people have been

notified. I would say it's like 50-50. Some people have been notified by their testing center or their

clinic. Others have no idea. Kaylee's a contact tracer. She works in North Dakota, a place where

the infection rate has been soaring. How soon do you know if it's going to be a good call or a bad call?

Basically right off the bat, you can tell by somebody's tone of voice.

If they are not happy with you and they do not want to talk to you, you can tell right away.

Some people cry. Others get mad. Say the virus is a hoax.

But no matter how her patients react, Kaylee has to keep calling them day after day to see how they're doing.

The whole time, I'm trying my best to change their mindset.

I'll make a couple jokes when it's appropriate.

I'll ask them about their life.

Have you met someone who's changed in the course of this, someone who

started out as resistant to what you had to say, and then gradually became less so?

Yes. As soon as you asked me that, one person came to mind. And unfortunately, they are one that passed away. I mean, they were not

happy with me at all. They were, they didn't think that this was a big deal. They didn't think that

they needed to be concerned. It was a cold. It was just a virus. And then as things progressively

got worse, then that's where it came in of okay this

might be real or what do i do or the constant calling and questioning of, is this okay?

Should I go in?

...