06/27/2020
Dr. Li Jiang's letter about Covid-19:
Dr. Li Jiang, General Pediatrician
613 COURTYARD DR HILLSBOROUGH, NJ 08844
908-725-0875
06/25/2020
Dear Governors,
We are a pediatric office in Hillsborough, New Jersey. We are deeply concerned with the current Coronavirus situation in the United States. We worry that the number of Coronavirus deaths will pass 1 million in just a matter of time if we do not take action now. Our economy will tank as a result of the pandemic. We only have limited time to act on it because Coronavirus transmission has been shown to occur exponentially. All states have to mount a coordinated team effort to tackle this problem as positive cases of Coronavirus can move freely between states or from other countries. In many parts of the US where certain states have reopened their businesses, an alarming number of people do not take precautions at all. We see on TV and through other news media that many people are in crowds without facial masks. It came as no surprise that the number of new Coronavirus cases skyrocketed in those places. Here are my suggestions to all of you:
1. Implement a massive campaign to educate the general public. People need to know that Coronavirus does not behave like flu infection. It doesn’t go away in the summertime. It can cause severe illnesses and extremely higher death rate than regular flu infection. Young people can die from it too. People need to be educated that opening up the economy does not mean that life goes back to normal. People still need to wear facial masks in public, keep social distancing, and vigorously wash their hands. They should avoid unnecessary trips to public places. Partial lock downs are essential if the Coronavirus cases suddenly surge after opening of business.
2. We need to advocate for self-quarantine for people traveling to different parts of the country, especially people from coronavirus hotspots to travel to other states. We must implement a mandatory quarantine for international travelers from active coronavirus areas. We also need to carefully check each international travelers’ travel history in the past 2 weeks to see if they have traveled to hotspots. We need to close borders with countries like Brazil. Finally, we should also ban travelers from entering the US, who had been to Brazil in the past 2 weeks and come to the US via a third country.
3. More testing sites need to be set up. This should be followed by vigorous contact tracing, and self-quarantine. Any opening of business without adequate testing, meticulous contact tracing and mandated self-quarantine is an invitation for disaster. We can recruit volunteers for each township and each neighborhood in order to fulfill this effort.
4. Governors need to coordinate the production of more PPE‘s in the states. Ideally this should be coordinated at the federal level. However we have not seen that happening. As we have more Coronavirus cases, the need for N95 respirators, facial masks, gloves, isolation gowns, alcohol solution and etc. will surely increase. It is disappointing that doctors still cannot purchase N95 masks. Alcohol solution is still a precious commodity. We are now at war practically. Therefore, it is justifiable to mobilize resources in your states to convert businesses to produce PPEs. They are not that difficult to manufacture if our governors take good leadership.
5. Governors need to communicate with the hospital directors regarding the capacity of hospital beds and the ICU beds availability. Hospital directors should work to increase their capacity to handle the influx of COVID-19 patients so that our healthcare system will not collapse.
6. We might need to create community centers that are designed for people who have been tested positive for COVID-19 and live in congested environments where self-quarantining is not possible. We may also use these centers to manage selective COVID19 patients to ease the pressure on the hospitals.
We don’t have much time left. Fall and winter seasons will be here in a few months. By then, there will be regular influenza viruses and seasonal common cold viruses to complicate the whole picture. These viruses will send more patients to the hospitals which may have already been congested by the Coronavirus patients. Furthermore, these regular viruses will weaken the patients’ immune system and make them more susceptible to coronavirus infection.
Thank you,
Dr. Li Jiang, General Pediatrician
Conlan Kemmerer, Office Manager
