More Than 1,000 Top Doctors Say Only Way to Get Control of Coronavirus Is to Shutdown and Restart

More Than 1,000 Top Doctors Say Only Way to Get Control of Coronavirus Is to Shutdown and Restart

America is now on a pace to finish the year with more than 300,000 deaths relating to the coronavirus.

For more than a week, the United States has averaged more than 60,000 new coronavirus cases a day.

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Now, a group of more than 1,000 top physicians and scientists from across the country including Dr. Michael Fine, former Rhode Island Director of Health, says the only way to get control of the disease is to stop the spread and shutdown nationally for three to five weeks and limit interstate travel.

"I think the nation does [need a nationwide lockdown]. I’m actually the signatory of a letter from many public health experts suggesting exactly that," said Fine. 

"I think it can be three, four, five weeks, but that’s not enough — we need to lockdown, yes, but then we need to bring in a million public health workers who blanket the streets and ensure that everybody is socially distanced, everyone is wearing a mask, that we’re doing temperature checking as people go in and out of stores — we’ve got to get serious about this with every fiber of our being," he said.

While Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo says she is following the science in her strategy to reopen schools and press forward with efforts to reopen the economy, the national scientists say the country will be plagued over and over again by waves of deadly outbreaks as Texas, Florida, California, Arizona, Georgia are suffering now -- and the same impact New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts experienced in March, April and May.

The letter by doctors to America’s national leaders states, “Shut it down now, and start over. Non-essential businesses should be closed. Restaurant service should be limited to take-out. People should stay home, going out only to get food and medicine or to exercise and get fresh air. Masks should be mandatory in all situations, indoors and outdoors, where we interact with others.”

"We have to enforce isolation, we have to enforce quarantine, we have to make sure we have isolation for people who live in densely packed housing. We have to triple, quadruple — maybe ten times over — the work and the resources we’re bringing to containing it. If we do that we’ll get our economy back, we can put kids in school, all sorts of things we won’t be able to do if we get these ‘dribs and drabs’ outbreaks, and we have to walk around with the threat of needing to close," said Fine.

Focusing on Community Numbers -- Not State

Fine pointed out that in some areas of the state, the percentage of people being tested are testing in the double digits positive.

"That’s correct — and for two weeks running now," said Fine. "It's very concerning for those places — and those are places in which I would love to see people really think about whether we should be open or not, whether restaurants should be doing indoor dining or not, and where the masking and social distancing out to be encouraged and even enforced."

"I don’t think we should care about what’s happening in the state as a whole. What we should be caring about is what’s happening in each community, because all schools, like all politics, are local. Determinations out to be made as to what’s happening in each community where the schools are located," he said.

"We’re at the beginning of this — not the middle, not the end. This is going to get worse and worse I fear. We are now seeing 300,000 new positive tested cases around the world — which means its more like three million people a day getting infected around the world if not more," he added. 

The letter from the doctors goes on to say, “We need that protocol in place until case numbers recede to a level at which we have the capacity to effectively test and trace. Then, and only then, we can try a little more opening, one small step at a time. You should bar non-essential interstate travel. When people travel freely between states, the good numbers in one state can go bad quickly. If you don’t take these actions, the consequences will be measured in widespread suffering and death.”

Raimondo's office said when asked about the letter from the physicians and scientists, "The Governor’s focus is on protecting the health, safety and economic well-being of Rhode Islanders."

Functioning Testing, Workforce of Contract Tracers and More PPE

The letter also states:

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:

-- 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). We currently have only 35% of the testing capacity we need to meet that threshold. The more people get sick, the more testing is required.

-- A workforce of contact tracers large enough to trace all current cases. That’s 210,000 more contact tracers than we had in April, but the number keeps going up as infections rise. Most states are far short of the number of contact tracers they need.

In addition, we need more personal protective equipment (PPE) to keep essential workers like health professionals, emergency responders, and grocery store clerks safe.