500 medical colleagues call on Gov. Baker & other state leaders to address the dire situation facing our healthcare workers due to COVID-19.

Dear Sustainable Wellesley community, 

Dr. Regina LaRocque and more than 500 of her medical colleagues are calling on Governor Charlie Baker and other state leaders to address the dire situation facing our healthcare workers due to COVID-19. 

As many of you know, Dr. LaRocque is a member of the Sustainable Wellesley leadership team, a Wellesley resident, and an infectious disease specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital. 

Sustainable Wellesley is opening all our lines of communication to support Dr. LaRocque and her colleagues and we urge you to join us in taking action.

Please read her message below and share it widely. Then, call  (1) Governor Baker (2) your State Representative and State Senators to let them know how important this issue is to you. (Click Find My Legislator if you aren’t sure who to contact.) 

1. Governor Baker: Please speak out forcefully and publicly as a Republican governor to counteract President Trump's dangerous narrative that we will be back to normal business by Easter.

2. Governor Baker: We need to ramp up military style local production of personal protective equipment. This needs to be coordinated centrally by the Governor’s office and executed by the National Guard. Right now, hospitals are doing all of this on an ad hoc basis. Governors have to take responsibility since the federal government is not. President Trump is not using the Defense Production Act. Massachusetts is forced to fight with other states and groups to access the national supply. We are already running short of critical personal protective equipment and supplies BEFORE the tidal wave has hit in Massachusetts. We do not have enough ventilators and respiratory clinics.

3. Governor Baker: Please add to your Command Center team a "Tony Fauci" point person with expertise in disaster management and infectious disease to communicate to the public about this epidemic.

4. Governor Baker: Please embed experts in infectious disease  on the state’s Coronavirus Response Command Center. We need experts dedicated solely to this effort. There are many qualified people in Massachusetts who are willing to serve, including the names that have been forwarded to you. The current 'advisory panel' is made up of people who are already working 24/7 at their own institutions.

5. Governor Baker:  Please keep pace with the governors in New York and Washington by giving clear and direct orders to stop all non-essential work, and give local governments the clarity and support they need to enforce your directives.

6. We need personal protective equipment to be delivered immediately to the MA medical community.

• Please have 3M and similar companies halt all production of any product that isn't PPE to focus on PPE manufacturing – N95 and other masks, gowns, gloves, face shields, eye protection.
• Plastic manufacturers need to halt production of anything other than protective gowns, face shields, gloves and other medical items (see #5)
• Have companies like Amazon halt 2-day delivery and focus on delivering the PPE to the healthcare force.
• Enable military forces to help with delivery of PPE to healthcare workers.
• Create campaigns for philanthropists to donate toward these items, perhaps buy them back from citizens who are hoarding them.

7. We need soaps, detergents, alcohol sanitizer and bleach to be delivered immediately.

• Please have Proctor and Gamble and similar companies to focus on soaps and detergents for hospital scrubs, gowns, linens
• Source disinfectant wipes as they are needed to keep hospital surfaces clean
• Hand sanitizer and soap are needed to prevent spread inside the hospitals

8.  Culture media, COVID19 tests, vaccine and drug development needs to take priority in biotech. Widespread easily accessible testing needs to be available immediately.

•  Let’s follow Korea’s example rather than Italy’s and limit the death toll by detection and early quarantine.
• Biotechnology manufacturing also needs to be ready and able to ramp up if and when treatments or vaccines are developed. Our Botox supply isn't critical, but our antiviral and antibiotic supply is.
  
  

9. Ventilators, endotracheal tubes are needed!

• Please have manufacturing plants switch their current focus and increase efforts on ventilators, endotracheal tubes, IV tubing, etc to prepare for the prolonged high need.

You can reach Governor Baker here:
Main # (617) 725-4005
Toll Free (888) 870-7770
Springfield Office (413) 784-1200
TTY (617) 727-3666 

There is a dire situation in our hospitals, putting our healthcare workers at risk, and consequently, all of us.  Many thanks for making the calls and sharing this with your community!

Stay well and safe.

Sustainable Wellesley