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1 – We have tried to follow the prescription given us by our top medical experts concerning the containment and cure of this difficult new virus.
2 – We’ve learned that the economic chaos that has befallen Americans from following this medical advice is economically unsustainable.
3 – We’ve learned that imposing what is in effect a national quarantine is leading us to economic disaster.
4 – We know that without having a strong economy we cannot sustain a healthy medical community and provide all Americans with the exceptional health-care that they have come to expect.
5 – We’ve learned that Covid-19 is highly infectious, that it preys on individuals with underlying medical problems and primarily the elderly who have multiple medical issues, and that those with pulmonary conditions are most in danger though it can kill at any age.
6 – We know that the death rate from Covid-19 is holding at around 2% of those infected, which is not all that different from the death rate from other viruses that have invaded America in the past.
7 – We know that In terms of understanding the relative effect of Covid-19 on the American people at large, that comparatively, we’ve sustained about 24,000 deaths from common influenza/flu so far this year which represents 8,000 deaths a month and 4,600 as averaged over an entire year.
8 – We’ve learned that current medical modeling of infectious disease is extremely imprecise and cannot be counted on to provide consistently reliable projections of the consequences having to do with the spread of any virus.
9 – We’ve learned that our entire health-care system had been unprepared to deal with a run on our hospitals for treatment and care because stockpiles of the necessary personal protective equipment and mechanical respirators needed to address the medical threat of any new virus had been drastically depleted – but we also know that we now have resupply in hand and that we are rapidly correcting past deficiencies with a nationwide re-supply effort that will unburden out medical providers in hospitals around the country and that re-supply will relieve virus patients and patients with all other ailments of uncertainty with regard to their being able to receive appropriate treatment in hospitals across the land.
10 – We’ve learned that having tens of millions of Americans out of work is not only unsustainable but that it is fraught with other, worse, medical consequences including increasing deaths among Americans from depression, suicide, and the compounding of other medical conditions and mental disorders.
11 – We’ve learned that we cannot continue along this medically-prescribed national virus-containment policy any longer, and that we have to instead, adopt a different approach that encourages the most vulnerable among us to continue to self-quarantine while, having the rest of us adopt new work and social distancing behavior that promotes as much as is practicable and then return to our normal lifestyles to whatever degree it is possible to do so.
12 – Because of this new reality and because we must stop any further economic damage from befalling the country, I now encourage all Americans to get back to work and to get back to living life within our new understanding of the nature and effect of this disease and to know, that while returning to the daily rhythm of life, that this government will continue to underwrite as well as work to repair and underwrite as much as possible, the monetary damage that has been sustained by all Americans so far, while also knowing that our government, and this President, will have every American’s back as we struggle to make this vitally important course correction in our national life.
Hon. Paul Mirski,
Letter to the Editor – Manchester Union Leader