The numbers don’t lie. In fact they are frightening.
If the toll of the virus can be measured in numbers, then so must our collective voice. Keep sharing the message. Keep calling your elected officials. Keep fighting until our collective voice is heard!
This is time to think about the long game. It’s about lives, families, communities. It’s about next year, the next decade, the next generation. It’s not about next quarter’s earnings.
We have to be willing to make short term sacrifices. The economy will recover in time, lost lives will not.
Moreover, it is not about the economy versus shelter in place. The two are aligned in many ways. For instance, consider small businesses. At such reduced volume these businesses cannot even cover their overhead and are not viable as long as the virus is spreading. Business owners also risk becoming too ill to run their businesses. The idea that staying open will save businesses is misguided, as they will continue to lose money until demand returns, which is entirely dependent on containment of the virus. At this point, we have two choices for our economy: shut it down in an attempt to blunt the force of COVID-19, or wait for COVID-19 to shut down the local economy for us.
The pending 2 trillion dollar federal spending bill includes relief for individuals and small businesses, and we should use those funds to bridge this gap and minimize the longer term effect. We need to pair the rescue funding with a temporary shutdown. If we do not, the number of lives lost will continue to rise rapidly and the country will be desperate for another rescue package. The government does not have endless fiscal bullets in the gun; we need to use this opportunity to solve the problem.
It starts with acting locally. At home. Staying home. Giving healthcare workers, grocery stores, pharmacies, and sanitation workers a chance to do the best they can for everyone. That’s why we are petitioning Governor Kemp to do more. Urging the very sick and high-risk to stay home does little as they are the groups most likely to stay home. Mayor Bottoms as well. The Mayor ordered a 2 week lockdown, but why are parks and the BeltLine open? People are still out and about. Along those lines, what do these orders mean if there is no accountability or enforceability for individuals who deviate?
From a healthcare perspective, we are fighting a war with one hand and four fingers tied behind our backs. People are not staying home, we are disturbingly short on supplies, and as more of us fall in, we will be counting on a depleted healthcare force to take care of increasing numbers of people fighting for their lives - a recipe for great disaster.
It’s not all doom and gloom, but it will be if we don't act. Countless irreplaceable lives will be lost. Other countries have given us a playbook that we know works, but we haven't used it and are out of time.
That is why I hope a leader in this country will heed medical advice. All non-essential activity needs to halt temporarily. Give us a chance to gather protective equipment, to fully operationalize testing on a mass scale, to do our jobs. The economy will recover in time and is not viable as long as this virus is spreading. These interests are completely aligned and will save lives.
Keep fighting, and stay safe.
Akshat
Thank you to Nancy Ouyang and Mike Callahan for their contributions to this update.