Close the United States and start again

By Shelby Lin Erdman, Jacqueline Howard, Jen Christensen, and Katia Hetter | CNN

More than 150 prominent medical experts, scientists, teachers, nurses, and other Americans have signed a letter urging political leaders to close the country and begin again to contain the growing coronavirus pandemic.

“The best thing for the nation is not to reopen as quickly as possible, it is to save as many lives as possible,” they wrote in the document, which was sent Thursday to the Trump administration, top members of Congress and state governors.

“Right now, we are on our way to losing more than 200,000 American lives by November 1. However, in many states, people can drink in bars, cut their hair, eat inside a restaurant, get a tattoo, get a massage, and do a myriad of other normal, enjoyable but not essential activities. “

His recommendations came when the United States crossed the 4 million mark on Thursday, with at least 4,028,741 coronavirus cases and 144,072 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University count.

Covid-19 “will end up as a top 10 cause of death” this year, statisticians from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicted in an email Thursday to CNN.

Although the CDC cannot begin ranking the top causes of death until the end of the year, for full-year data, agency statisticians said they expect Covid-19 to finish in the top 10 causes of death in the nation.

Heart disease and cancer are the two leading causes of death in the US, accounting for more than half of all deaths in the US each year, and statisticians don’t expect that to change.

Opening the economy safely

The recommendations come as many states are dealing with record numbers of new cases and overburdened hospitals, high unemployment rates, and pressure to make decisions for the upcoming school year.

The only way to reopen the economy and country safely is to follow a set of protocols that public health experts consider necessary to control the spread of Covid-19, according to the letter.

They include: enough daily tests to assess everyone with flu-like symptoms, a contact tracker workforce large enough to track all current cases, and more personal protective equipment to keep essential workers safe.

Furthermore, they say that all non-essential businesses should be closed and restaurants across the country should only provide takeout service. People should only leave their homes to get food and medicine or fresh air and exercise, and masks should be mandatory in all situations, according to the letter. Leaders must also ban interstate travel to help contain the virus.

“If you don’t take these steps, the consequences will be measured in widespread suffering and death,” the letter warned.

“Our decision makers must press the reset button,” said Matt Wellington, director of public health campaigns for the advocacy group US PIRG, which teamed up with health experts to write the letter.

“Continuing on the path we are on now will result in widespread suffering and death. And for what? Health experts set criteria on how to reopen safely. Time to listen to them, ”Wellington said.

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel of the University of Pennsylvania, William Hanage with TH Harvard TH School of Public Health, Dr. Seth Trueger of Northwestern University and Dr. Reshma Ramachandran of Yale School of Medicine are among the growing number of experts who signed the letter.

Many Americans are at risk

According to a new CDC report released Thursday, about 41% of US adults have at least one underlying medical condition that may put them at increased risk for serious Covid-19 results.

The research, published in the agency’s weekly Morbidity and Mortality report, looked at five conditions that tend to put people at higher risk for more severe coronavirus disease: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cardiovascular disease, diabetes. , chronic kidney disease and obesity.