In “An open letter to the American public,” the American Hospital Association (AHA), American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Nurses Association (ANA) are urging everyone to “take the simple steps we know will help stop the spread of the virus: wearing a face mask, maintaining physical distancing, and washing hands.”
The three associations added, “We are not powerless in this public health crisis, and we can defeat it in the same way we defeated previous threats to public health — by allowing science and evidence to shape our decisions and inform our actions.”
The AHA, AMA, and ANA noted that when the country was hunkered down prior to many states reopening on Memorial Day weekend, the number of new Covid-19 cases and the death toll were both on the decline, but then, “the steps that were critical to the progress we made were too quickly abandoned,” they wrote. “And we are now watching in real-time as a dramatic uptick in Covid-19 cases is erasing our hard-won gains.”
With some hospitals at or nearing ICU capacity and continued shortages of PPE and testing supplies, patients and health care workers are in danger, they warned.
“And last week, Dr. Anthony Fauci told Congress that the U.S could see 100,000 new coronavirus cases each day if we do not take more precautions,” they added.
The AHA, AMA, and ANA pointed out that it may take months, if not years, to truly understand Covid-19’s impact on the country.
“But what is certain — and what the science and evidence are telling us — is that Covid-19 is not behind us and we must resist confusing re-opening with returning to normalcy. Doing so will escalate this crisis and result in more suffering and death,” they wrote.
Candace Hoffmann, Managing Editor, BreakingMED™
Cat ID: 190
Topic ID: 79,190,254,930,570,574,190,926,192,927,151,928,925,934
