Doctors to Governor Lee: “Our Oath Calls Us to Save Lives, We Are United on Stay-at-Home Order”

Dr. Tufik Assad, flanked by 22 of the 2,000 physicians that issued a letter to Governor Lee back on March 20th Respond to Governor Lee's Claims the Medical Community is Divided on a Stay at Home Order

NASHVILLE — (April 1, 2020) Doctors from Tennessee’s medical community rejected claims by Gov. Bill Lee that health experts are divided on whether the state should issue a stricter stay-at-home order to save lives.  Dr. Tufik Assad, a pulmonary and critical care physician in Williamson County who was one of the 2,000 Tennessee doctors that signed a letter to Governor Lee back on March 20, calling for more aggressive movement restrictions, issued the following statement:

"Gov. Lee, I’m Dr. Assad, and today I’m joined by just a few of my 2,000+ colleagues who first sent our letter to you back on March 20th pleading for a Stay at Home order to save lives.  We all took an oath that we are trying to live up to. We are here for our patients. You said yesterday the medical community is divided, well we, along with 2,000 other physicians and health care workers want to just deliver a simple statement today: Governor Lee:  Your medical community IN TENNESSEE is not divided.

A Stay at Home suggestion is not a Stay at Home Order. Despite ALL the suggesting, ALL the urging, data shows this problem only getting worse. The death rate and case count are where many of us said it would be when over 2,000 TN doctors first began pleading with you to act 10 days ago.

In hurricanes, Governors often order people to leave their homes to save lives. In this pandemic, we are asking that you order people to STAY HOME to save lives.

We each took an oath to protect our patients, much like your oath to lead and protect our state. Gov. Lee, we are pleading. Please do your job so that we can do ours. To protect lives."

Assad was joined by nearly two dozen of his peers and colleagues of the 2,000 who signed the original letter, including:

Dr. Matthew W. Semler
Dr. Kimberly Plourde,MD Emergency Medicine
Dr. Womack
Dr. Laura Lyons, DO Emergency Medicine
Dr. Philip Lammers
Dr. Ali Bollinger, MD, FAAEM Emergency Physician
Dr. Anurag Mehrotra, MD
Dr. Drew Dill, MD
Dr. Bob Rosen
Dr. Jennifer Martin, Dermatology
Dr. Ysela Carrillo MD FACS FCCM General Surgeon Critical Care
Dr. James Parnell, MD, FAAEM Emergency Medicine Gallatin, TN
Dr. Sailendra Vasireddy, MD
Dr. Michelle Walther MD Emergency Medicine
Dr. Susan Geiger, MD (Sumner County)
Dr. Devin Sherman, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine
Dr. Isaac Thomsen
Dr. Salil Goorha, MD
Dr. Matt King
Dr. Jim Gray
Dr. Jason B. Martin
Dr. Jessicalynn Rosen