COVID-19 RECOVERY

My perspective on our current coronavirus pandemic comes from the frontlines, caring for COVID-19 patients in the hospital. It is my duty as a doctor, first and foremost, to face this challenge with an emphasis on service, diligence, and following the emerging science. Still, this experience has made even more clear the importance of having experts in the room in our highest levels of government. Times like these help illustrate why it would be helpful to have a doctor in the House. 
 
Patients walk into hospitals sick, scared and alone. My colleagues around the country show up for work each day ready to serve, but worried about resources and support. Every day, my wife, Leigh-Ann—an emergency room doctor—and I talk about how we will keep our kids safe after coming home from caring for our community in this pandemic. 

Our current leaders have failed. Both in their preparation for this crisis and in the execution of their response to it.

This virus has laid bare inequities our society has faced for decades. Many students in rural areas lack the access to broadband internet to allow them to continue learning online while schools are closed. Tens of thousands of residents of this district who were already food insecure face an even bigger challenge as the suddenly increased demand has lines for food banks stretching endlessly. Issues with housing affordability for individuals and families make it harder to physically isolate for some who are most at-risk for the most severe health outcomes in this pandemic. Poor air quality—more common in low-income and minorities communities due to environmental injustice—has been correlated to more deaths from COVID. 
 
Add to those challenges the unique dynamics of this pandemic and its economic crisis. How many of our most “essential” workers are the least paid, most at risk for the virus, and sometimes do not even have health insurance. How recently laid off employees are forced to navigate a complex and overrun unemployment system, rather than having access to paid leave that could keep them employed. How some workers have no choice but to go to work sick—even now—because they are not given sick leave, they have bills to pay, and they don’t qualify for any of the current economic stimulus programs. Or how small businesses are unable to get relief from the Payment Protection Program while large corporations are able to take advantage of loopholes and close relationships to big banks.
 
We must address the immediate health crisis, put in place wrap-around support systems that keep our communities housed and fed, and listen to the guidance of public health experts to re-open gradually when it is safe. This economic crisis we’re facing is not a typical recession. Instead, the threat of the virus required that authorities essentially shut down large swaths of the economy. As we neutralize that threat, we must keep households and small businesses afloat so that we have an economy to restart on the other side of this crisis.

OUR COLLECTIVE RECOVERY

Our collective recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic should include the following:
  • 1. Enable people to make safe decisions by ensuring that nobody has to choose between going to work sick or paying their bills.
    • Enact recurring direct stimulus payments to individuals through the COVID-19 crisis.
    • Expand eligibility and offerings in the Medicaid and SNAP programs, while also eliminating all work requirements for these programs, providing access to food.
    • Protect people from eviction and from mortgage or student loan default if they cannot work because of COVID.
    • Mandate at least 12 weeks of paid sick, medical, and family leave for all employees.
  • 2. Make sure our healthcare system is prepared for ongoing infections and the inevitable second wave.
    • Scale up our testing capacity to the size of the crisis.
    • Efficiently trace contacts to minimize the spread of disease.
    • Ensure an adequate supply of personal protective equipment to protect our healthcare and essential workers.
    • Adhere to best practices in identifying and disseminating therapies and technologies to improve outcomes—from drugs to ventilators.
    • Provide adequate financial support for hospitals around the country to ensure that our healthcare infrastructure is not decimated by the cost of managing COVID-19.
  • 3. Plan for maintaining business continuity and employment relationships until it is safe for people to resume normal participation in the economy.
    • Ensure robust funding of forgivable, emergency loans to small businesses—including local, minority-owned, and women-owned small businesses—to support this backbone of our economy.
    • Impose a national moratorium on small business debt collections.
    • Close the loopholes that allow large corporations to avoid taxes and take advantage of federal dollars they don’t need.
    • Put in place oversight and accountability mechanisms for corporations who receive bailouts. No CEO who received government money should be getting a raise this year, and they must be held accountable for protecting jobs.