![]() That’s 210,000 more contact tracers than we had in April, but the number keeps going up as infections rise. A workforce of contact tracers large enough to trace all current cases. The more people get sick, the more testing is required. We currently have about half of the testing capacity we need to meet that threshold. Enough daily testing capacity to test everyone with flu-like symptoms plus anyone they have been in close contact with over the last 2 weeks (at least 10 additional tests per symptomatic person). ![]() Public health professionals have made clear that even after we’ve contained the virus by staying at home, in order to reopen American cities and towns safely, we will need: Economists have gone on record saying that the only way to “restore the economy is to address the pandemic itself,” pointing out that until we find a way to boost testing and develop and distribute a vaccine, open or not, people will not be in the mood to participate. And reopening before suppressing the virus isn’t going to help the economy. The best thing for the nation is not to reopen as quickly as possible, it’s to save as many lives as possible. We could have prevented 99% of those COVID-19 deaths. If our response had been as effective as South Korea, Australia, or Singapore’s, fewer than 2,000 Americans would have died. If our response had been as effective as Germany’s, estimates show that we would have had only 36,000 COVID-19 deaths in that period in the United States. More than 117,000 Americans had died of COVID-19 by mid-June. Yet, in many states people can drink in bars, get a haircut, eat inside a restaurant, get a tattoo, get a massage, and do myriad other normal, pleasant, but non-essential activities. Right now we are on a path to lose nearly 300,000 American lives by December 1st. And then you started to reopen anyway, and too quickly. You didn’t use the time to set us up to defeat the virus. In March, people went home and stayed there for weeks, to keep themselves and their neighbors safe. At the same time, we’re in the midst of “reopening our economy,” exposing more and more people to coronavirus and watching numbers of cases - and deaths - skyrocket. ![]() Of all the nations in the world, we’ve had the most deaths from COVID-19. Not a health professional? We need you too. ![]() We’ll update the list regularly with signatures.** ** This is an open letter to America’s decision makers, on behalf of health professionals across the country. ![]()
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