Coronavirus Action Plan for the United States

The Issue

Protect and support front-line heroes:
- $90 billion for Personal Protective Equipment for medical personnel
- $90 billion to hire and pay front-line medical personnel and/or to pay benefits if they sicken or die in the line of duty

Provision our forces:
- $90 billion for hospital beds, ventilators, and other medical facilities and supplies
- $90 billion to support hospitals
- give each individual hospital emergency powers to increase beds and labor by suspending regulations on personnel qualifications and requirements for beds

Gain intelligence on the enemy:
- $90 billion for emergency temporary hiring of health personnel and other project costs for tasks such as contact tracing, building a national db of infected cases, etc
- $90 billion for crisis-related research
- $90 billion for testing

Attack the enemy:
- $90 billion for purchase commitments of vaccines or similar
- $90 billion for purchase commitments of treatments

Cut off the enemy's food supply:
- immediately subject the entire country to a shutdown similar to what various states are doing, until such time as estimated R0 < 1 and we have traced almost all of the close contacts of almost all of the infected people.
- mandate home quarantine of close contacts of a suspected infected case
- use surveillance technology for (a) contact tracing, and (b) enforcement of quarantine orders
- totally free testing AND TREATMENT of any coronavirus-related illnes (we don't want anyone hiding coronavirus because they can't afford treatment)
- all people coming into the US subject to mandatory 14-day self-isolation and testing
- temperature check everyone upon entering any large or crowded indoor area or public transit station
- mandate wearing of procedure masks when in public. Until masks are generally available, bandanas may be used.
- mandatory unlimited unpaid sick leave (we don't want anyone coming to work sick)
- mandate self-isolation while showing symptoms. Provide and deliver necessary supplies to self-isolating individuals.

Avoid an economic depression:
- every US adult receives a check for $1000 every two weeks for the duration of the shutdown
- every small business affected by a shutdown receives checks of $500 every two weeks, multiplied by the number of people they full-time employed as of the beginning of 2020
- note that the extremely high levels of new medical spending in this plan will also help to stimulate the economy

Support our allies locally and globally:
- $90 billion for unfettered grants to county health agencies, weighted by county population
- $90 billion to support other countries' fight against coronavirus

Deploy our military when requested by local authorities to:
- assist hospitals and assist in building new medical facilities
- assist police in the enforcement of shutdowns and quarantines
- assist in the provision of supplies to quarantined or self-isolating individuals

Use capitalism to ramp up production of scarce supplies:
- prohibit speculative hoarding: compel every entity with a substantial inventory of goods with shortages to report this inventory to the government, and to immediately offer it for sale at market prices
- compel every manufacturer who is able to convert production from non-essential goods into goods with shortages to report this capability to the government, and to make the conversion, conditional upon receiving purchase orders of sufficient size to break even
- cancel all anti-price-gouging rules (and, federally preempt state anti-price-gouging laws), and spend $90 billion to purchase supplies to be given free to poor consumers who can't afford them due to high prices (if we want to retool and ramp up production extremely fast, that is expensive; we will have to pay for speed in the form of increased prices)
- market pricing only works when there is competition, so set government prices caps in markets with monopolies and near-monopolies

Obviously, instead of just saying $90 billion for each thing, it would be better to calculate which things would be expected to need more and less, but due to urgency, this just a first pass. Some of these items will need less than $90 billion, but others will need a lot more. Suggestions encouraged.

This plan will more than double the budget deficit for 2020, but it will save a lot of lives.

This has to be done soon in order for it to work.

This petition had 10,198 supporters

The Issue

Protect and support front-line heroes:
- $90 billion for Personal Protective Equipment for medical personnel
- $90 billion to hire and pay front-line medical personnel and/or to pay benefits if they sicken or die in the line of duty

Provision our forces:
- $90 billion for hospital beds, ventilators, and other medical facilities and supplies
- $90 billion to support hospitals
- give each individual hospital emergency powers to increase beds and labor by suspending regulations on personnel qualifications and requirements for beds

Gain intelligence on the enemy:
- $90 billion for emergency temporary hiring of health personnel and other project costs for tasks such as contact tracing, building a national db of infected cases, etc
- $90 billion for crisis-related research
- $90 billion for testing

Attack the enemy:
- $90 billion for purchase commitments of vaccines or similar
- $90 billion for purchase commitments of treatments

Cut off the enemy's food supply:
- immediately subject the entire country to a shutdown similar to what various states are doing, until such time as estimated R0 < 1 and we have traced almost all of the close contacts of almost all of the infected people.
- mandate home quarantine of close contacts of a suspected infected case
- use surveillance technology for (a) contact tracing, and (b) enforcement of quarantine orders
- totally free testing AND TREATMENT of any coronavirus-related illnes (we don't want anyone hiding coronavirus because they can't afford treatment)
- all people coming into the US subject to mandatory 14-day self-isolation and testing
- temperature check everyone upon entering any large or crowded indoor area or public transit station
- mandate wearing of procedure masks when in public. Until masks are generally available, bandanas may be used.
- mandatory unlimited unpaid sick leave (we don't want anyone coming to work sick)
- mandate self-isolation while showing symptoms. Provide and deliver necessary supplies to self-isolating individuals.

Avoid an economic depression:
- every US adult receives a check for $1000 every two weeks for the duration of the shutdown
- every small business affected by a shutdown receives checks of $500 every two weeks, multiplied by the number of people they full-time employed as of the beginning of 2020
- note that the extremely high levels of new medical spending in this plan will also help to stimulate the economy

Support our allies locally and globally:
- $90 billion for unfettered grants to county health agencies, weighted by county population
- $90 billion to support other countries' fight against coronavirus

Deploy our military when requested by local authorities to:
- assist hospitals and assist in building new medical facilities
- assist police in the enforcement of shutdowns and quarantines
- assist in the provision of supplies to quarantined or self-isolating individuals

Use capitalism to ramp up production of scarce supplies:
- prohibit speculative hoarding: compel every entity with a substantial inventory of goods with shortages to report this inventory to the government, and to immediately offer it for sale at market prices
- compel every manufacturer who is able to convert production from non-essential goods into goods with shortages to report this capability to the government, and to make the conversion, conditional upon receiving purchase orders of sufficient size to break even
- cancel all anti-price-gouging rules (and, federally preempt state anti-price-gouging laws), and spend $90 billion to purchase supplies to be given free to poor consumers who can't afford them due to high prices (if we want to retool and ramp up production extremely fast, that is expensive; we will have to pay for speed in the form of increased prices)
- market pricing only works when there is competition, so set government prices caps in markets with monopolies and near-monopolies

Obviously, instead of just saying $90 billion for each thing, it would be better to calculate which things would be expected to need more and less, but due to urgency, this just a first pass. Some of these items will need less than $90 billion, but others will need a lot more. Suggestions encouraged.

This plan will more than double the budget deficit for 2020, but it will save a lot of lives.

This has to be done soon in order for it to work.

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Petition created on March 24, 2020