Significance Language discordance has been shown to contribute to social disparities in healthcare. Contact tracing is essential to combating COVID-19, but language differences between contact tracers and patients have hindered its efficacy. We demonstrate a general method for leveraging machine learning and administrative data to maximize the impact of bilingual contact tracers and level language differences. We evaluate in a randomized controlled trial the impact of language matching on high-volume contact tracing in Santa Clara County, CA, and show that it reduces time spent and improves engagement with contact tracers. These results illustrate the advantages of utilizing bilingual personnel over third-party interpreters in improving social services.

This paper examines whether Austria-Hungary would have gone to war with Serbia and thereby initiated the First World War if it had not received the “blank cheque” from Germany on July 5th and 6th, 1914. The article begins by exploring political debates over war against Serbia in Austria-Hungary’s Ministerial Council following of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, as informed by the diverse personal and domestic interests of the council’s members. It then analyzes the probability of Austro-Hungarian victory in a hypothetical invasion of Serbia without German support. Possibilities of a peaceful resolution of the assassination crisis that may have been achieved without German obstruction are also taken into account. Overall, this paper concludes that an Austro-Hungarian invasion of Serbia in 1914 becomes unlikely without the blank cheque. It also offers insights into the role of diplomatic support in emboldening risk-taking by states past and present, even when major wars are possible. The extent to which such support is unconditionally guaranteed in alliances continues to be an important factor when de-escalating international crises today.