I don’t want to waste your valuable time during this deadly pandemic, so I will get right to the point. Obviously we need massive amounts of testing for both the COVID-19 virus and antibodies, cures, and vaccines. Who in the pharma space (private or university) is not working on this? Please let us know. And then order them to get cracking.
Until there is a safe and reliable vaccine, we all need personal protective equipment (PPE). There is not enough PPE for essential workers now, too many of whom are dying right now due to a lack of PPE in the closed economy: doctors, nurses, child protective service workers, grocery store employees, and so many others.
It would be clinically insane to reopen the country until there are enough reliable face masks and gloves for everyone on this list:
- Doctors and Physicians Assistants in the hospitals and working the testing sites
- Nurses in the hospitals and working the testing sites
- EMTs, firefighters, and police officers
- Every other doctor, PA, nurse and dentist and dental hygienist and receptionist and clerk
- Everyone working in a nursing home
- Everyone still living in a nursing home
- Child Protective Service (CPS) workers on the front lines of home visits
- All CPS workers
- Therapists and psychiatrists
- Grocery store workers
- Grocery delivery personnel
- Delivery employees from UPS to USPS to FedEx to InstaCart to Peapod to all of them
- Unemployment office workers
- Gas station attendants
- Bank employees
- Government workers assisting the homeless
- The homeless
- Me (so I can go out without some made-up concoction that either slips down or asphyxiates me—have you shopped Amazon for masks? We were told not to buy masks so essential workers would have them. Your choices now are basically “made in Wuhan” and ski masks as we head into spring and summer)
- You and your press conference team (so you can finally set an example for the country)
- Every person who breathes through their nose and mouth and, therefore, can catch or spread COVID-19
TOTAL: Enough for 330 million people (to leave their homes and interact without killing each other for at least a year until a vaccine is available)
You have a handy power no one else does: the Defense Production Act. It’s time to order every factory in the United States that can be repurposed to make masks and gloves. Put people back to work who can save the lives of everyone else. Then we can talk about reopening the country.
Thank you.
P.S. We could also use some Clorox Wipes, Lysol, and toilet paper.
