An ease to #Coronavius restrictions will come, but 1st Congress needs to invest to contain the virus & begin on a path towards recovery. It's why @USofCare's founder @ASlavitt teamed up w/ @ScottGottliebMD on a bipartisan public health expert letter. 1/7 n.pr/3aLAzdL
The letter was submitted to Capitol Hill today and also signed by @USofCare's board member @bfrist & FC Members Mark McClellan, @drJoshS, @GovMikeLeavitt and @Atul_Gawande. A quick listen to their plan here 2/7: n.pr/2SbA2eV
The plan includes creating an army of contact tracers: $12 billion to help expand the contact tracing workforce to 180,000 until a vaccine is on the market 3/7. thehill.com/policy/healthc…
Taking care of the most vulnerable: $4.5 billion to use vacant hotels so those too ill but without a place to properly self-isolate have somewhere they can go so they don't spread the virus to others or their own families 4/7.
Meeting financial needs: $30 billion to offer 18 months of income support for people self-isolating, with a per-person, per-day stipend of $50, much like federal jury duty 5/7.
While Congress has already passed some funding accomplishing this, these leaders believe additional points in the next round of relief for all Americans are necessary so that our nation and economy can begin to heal and our lives can get back to normal in the future 6/7.
Additional signers of the letter include @T_Inglesby, @larrybrilliant, @juliettekayyem, @bobkocher, @Farzad_MD, @vivek_murthy, @mtosterholm, @EricTopol & @DrLeanaWen.
Here's the final letter 7/7. apps.npr.org/documents/docu…
