NEW: 20 days inside England's "world-beating" test and trace system that is anything but –– @benjmueller and I spoke with over a dozen contact tracers, health & gov officials and got new details on that secretive Serco contract: it's worth £108m. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/17/world/europe/uk-contact-tracing-coronavirus.html

This is what happened when I contacted the Department of Health for comment –– an unexpected insight into the contradictions between what the government tells the public vs what they admit behind closed doors.

US states pay contact tracers $50,000 a year; Germany relies on 375 public health authorities and doctors help administer tests –– in England, thousands of contact tracers are paid £8.72 an hour by private firms, some as teenagers in their very first jobs. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/17/world/europe/uk-contact-tracing-coronavirus.amp.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share#click=https://t.co/i0v6Nz1qHd