MINNEAPOLIS — State and federal researchers completed 400 to 500 household visits in Minnesota as part of a broad COVID survey before the project was scuttled after field workers were confronted by racist threats. Although short of a planned 1,200 household visits, state health officials believe they can extract useful data from what they have. Data are expected to help better understand the disease and its spread. The project, called Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response, or CASPER for short, was scheduled for September 14-30 but was called off after fewer than 10 days. The survey originally was cover to 180 neighborhoods.
Earlier: Rural racists bully COVID field workers
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Most people whom field workers approached were polite but a pattern emerged from the hostile incidents, said Dan Huff, assistant state health commissioner. He said the decision was made to end the survey rather than continuing the risk of anxiety for field workers . Also rejected was an option of sending only white surveyors in largely white rural communities.