At least 2,000 health care workers have signed a petition asking Gov. Bill Lee to issue a statewide shelter-in-place order to combat the spread of the coronavirus.
As of Friday afternoon, the petition had close to 25,000 signatures, including the signatures of more than 2,000 health care workers, according to Dr. Aaron Milstone, a pulmonary and critical care specialist who started the petition.
“Gov. Lee’s continued refusal to issue a stay-at-home order has really allowed things to get a lot worse here in Tennessee when we really should have been preparing,” Milstone said during an interview this week on MSNBC, saying Lee has demonstrated “weak leadership.”
“If you take those conservative models and follow what Lee is doing currently, 40,000 Tennesseans potentially may die of this virus. If we issue a stay-at-home here in the state of Tennessee, I can take that number down at least ten fold,” he added.
The Tennessee Medical Association sent the petition to all of its members and invited them to add their signatures.
“In the absence of aggressive testing and tracking positive patients and contacts (which we are not doing yet), restricting activities and movement of people is the best weapon we have to slow virus,” said the TMA. “While no one is proposing a total lockdown in the USA, anything that will restrict people from gathering and meeting will likely slow the spread significantly.”
In one video, Milstone said Gov. Lee’s “failure to do what is right betrays the nurses and doctors fighting this pandemic.”
Milstone and several of his colleagues sent a letter to Lee’s office last week asking him to issue a shelter-in-place order. As of Friday, 23 states and one U.S. territory had told their residents to stay home, according to The New York Times.
“It is our estimation that we have little time to ‘flatten the curve’ on the current situation. China and South Korea have made great progress by imposing restrictive measures. We ask that Tennessee do the same,” said the letter.
Several cities across Tennessee have issued their own shelter-in-place orders, including both Memphis and Nashville. Lee said Thursday that he hasn’t ruled out a shelter-in-place order, but doesn’t think it is the right time to issue one.
The governor launched a new “do your part, stay apart” campaign Thursday with the help of several Nashville celebrities.
As of Friday afternoon, Tennessee had 1,203 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 103 hospitalizations, and six deaths.
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of The Minnesota Sun and The Ohio Star. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected]
Photo “Bill Lee” by Bill Lee.
Hey Doctor know-it-all why are you worried about the Coranavirus which has globally about 30,000 death why are you not fighting another health care crisis called abortion. Did you know the CDC listed over 600,000 abortions last year in the United States that the death of a unborn baby. If you follow statistics why are you not calling for the end to abortions. If we are using statistics to define out heath crisis, the the REAL PANDEMIC is abortions.
No more Governor, how about using some common sense. We have basically shut down everything over the flu. I think our numbers across the state do not show the reaction requested is necessary in any way. If these people were as worried about killing babies thru abortion as much as they are worried about a virus, maybe something really serious might be resolved. Do not add any more hysteria.
This is a link to an article published recently that offers some (albeit grim) reassurances in that regard, and also raises the concern that the greater risk is overreaction and, worse, how those fears are being manipulated to undermine our freedoms; I concur.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/wake-up-your-fears-are-being-manipulated/
Excerpt:
“No need for history. Right now, in real time, behind the backs of the coronavirus, is the every-year, plain-old influenza. Some 12,000 people have died, with over 13 million infected from influenza just between October 2019 and February 2020. The death toll is screamingly higher (as of this writing, coronavirus has infected 60,653 and killed 819 Americans). Bluntly: more people have already died of influenza in the U.S. than from the coronavirus in China, Iran, and Italy combined. Double in fact. To be even blunter, no one really cares, even though a large number of bodies are piling up. Why?”
Ralph, the main thing they care about re: the flu is pushing the flu vaccine. They’ll really be pushing one for this one. I heard leftist authoritarian presidential candidate, Joe Biden, call for it to be MANDATORY So much for “healthcare is a right”! That’s classic fascism for the government to mandate that we be forced to use a product or service. And how does Joe Biden and other phony liberals plan to enforced MANDATORY vaccines all of which have dangerous side effects? I prefer Liberty in taking care of my own health and all other aspects of life.
“If the people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.” —Thomas Jefferson
Ralph, the main thing they care about re: the flu is pushing the flu vaccine. They’ll really be pushing one for this one. I heard leftist authoritarian presidential candidate, Joe Biden, call for it to be MANDATORY So much for “healthcare is a right”! That’s classic fascism for the government to mandate that we be forced to use a product or service. And how does Joe Biden and other phony liberals plan to enforced MANDATORY vaccines all of which have dangerous side effects? I prefer Liberty in taking care of my own health and all other aspects of life.
“If the people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.” —Thomas Jefferson
“Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an undercover dictatorship to restrict the art of healing to one class of Men and deny equal privileges to
others; the Constitution of the Republic should make a Special privilege for medical freedoms as well as religious freedom.” –Dr. Benjamin Rush, Signer of the Declaration of Independence
No one is telling these people that they have to get out. But do not tell me to stay at home.
Why aren’t doctors admonishing us to strengthen and enhance our immune system? Early on, I did hear Dr. Oz talk about that about 2-3 weeks ago, but ever since, he and others NEVER mention it! I think that is because the corporate media is controlled by the pharmaceutical company ad money and the fascist FDA. The media needs other health experts who are not in that controlled lane!
Tell it, Tom!
https://mobile.twitter.com/NFL/status/1243704357226455046
First, I given absolutely NO credibility for ANYTHING that is said on MSNBC. Second, 40,000 deaths??? That is blatant fear mongering. This whole issue has been blown out of proportion by the Leftist media to discredit the President. I’ll wager that the majority of these medical practitioners are from the Nashville/Memphis area. What may be needed in one part of TN is not what is needed in another. Just like expecting the people in Oklahoma to need the same controls over travel as New York City. The Left is never happy until they can control every aspect of peoples lives. Commerce needs to continue, and Americans need to be working.
I absolutely agree. There has been virtually no perspective with most reporting on this virus. Why is it so much more of an urgent pandemic than the flu virus? The CDC’s own numbers for the flu as of this moment: 39 million illnesses, 400,000 hospitalizations, 24,000 deaths. That’s so far this season. Yet people are clamoring for our governor to curtail more of their freedom and crush our economy for what? All the panic is based on “models” and “projections,” not actual data. The numbers don’t add up. If a person is afraid to get sick, just stay home. We really need to get back to church and back to work.