Dear Governor Lee, Federal Lawmakers, Local Mayors and Employers:

We took an oath to protect our patients and right now the greatest threat to their lives is the contradictory and sometimes false information being shared about Covid-19, and the failure of some political leaders to listen to health experts and focus on addressing this health crisis.

We cannot solve the economic crisis without first addressing the health crisis that created it.

Physical separation policies like the stay-at-home order are slowing the spread of Covid-19 and are mitigating the strain on hospitals, health care workers, medical supplies health workers need to keep your constituents safe. These measures are helping protect lives and the economy from a far worse outcome. What do you think will happen to our economy when employers become responsible for employees or customers getting sick, or worse, dying because health protections were rolled-back too soon, against the advice of health experts?

Covid-19 is five times more infectious than the flu (R naught per Vanderbilt study). It is proven to travel asymptomatically in many people, showing no symptoms, for weeks. The death rate is nearly 10x that of the normal flu and unlike the flu, there is currently no treatment, no vaccine, and no defense - except physical separation of people.

Before reopening our economy political leaders must first use the power, resources and scale of the government you are responsible for leading to ensure we have:

1. rapid contact tracing and isolation of cases that breaks chains of transmission when they are discovered.
2. regular, routine, and rapid testing (because a test today only shows whether you are infected today, and that does nothing to determine whether you get infected tomorrow at work). Only regular, routine testing will solve this problem.
3. protection for first responders and health care workers from infection (because as we become infected, and quarantined, there are fewer health care workers to save lives in our communities).

While vaccines and treatments are the ideal solutions before opening the economy, these measures above are the absolute bare-minimum that need to be resolved before considering a roll-back of health protections  like the stay-at-home order and returning to business as usual.

We want the economy reopened and life to return to normal as well. But, we cannot solve the economic crisis without first solving this health crisis and we need the help of our government leaders to do it. 

Our ask of every political leader is to use the institutions you've been elected to lead to help us beat this virus and save lives.  To do that, we need you to commit to a transparent, unified approach and only reopening your economy when Governor Lee and Congress have addressed the health crisis by ensuring:

1. rapid contact tracing and isolation of cases that breaks chains of transmission when they are discovered.
2. regular, routine, and rapid testing
3. protection for first responders and health care workers from infection
4. or vaccines and treatments.

We are suffering like much of the business community is suffering. Many of our medical offices are also small businesses. But for us to be able to do our jobs, for our businesses to run, we need political leaders to do their jobs and leverage their resources effectively to address this health crisis.  The sooner we meet the conditions above, the sooner the economy - and our lives - can get back to some normalcy.

Can we count on you to help us fulfill our oaths and save lives by only reopening your economy when Governor Lee and federal lawmakers have met these conditions?

Signed,

Dr. Aaron Milstone and...