> Official contact tracing in the US is a complete dud and had negligible impact on the spread. People informing their fiends/family “hey I just got Covid you should probably test/isolate” was what practically can make a difference.

Contact tracing has worked superbly in Australia and New Zealand.

The fact that the US fucked things up completely doesn't mean that they were worthless techniques; rather than the US didn't want to stop people dying badly enough to make proper use of them.