The Tennessee Medical Association (TMA) sent a letter to every municipal and county mayor in the state Friday asking them to request authority from Gov. Bill Lee to issue shelter-in-place orders for their communities.
Lee has thus far declined to issue a statewide shelter-in-place order, which prompted more than 2,000 health care workers to sign a petition asking him to change course, The Tennessee Star reported. As of Sunday, 26 states had issued stay-at-home orders, including the neighboring states of North Carolina and Kentucky.
“In order to attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19 in Tennessee, the Tennessee Medical Association would recommend each of you to request authority from the Governor to allow you to issue a stay-at-home or similar order for your jurisdiction, like those now in place in Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville, and Franklin,” states the letter.
Columbia Mayor Chaz Molder said on Twitter that several mayors across the state have been asking Lee for authority to issue shelter-in-place orders, but currently don’t have the power to do so under various state and local laws.
“Only Gov. Lee can issue that order, and I am hopeful he does before it’s too late,” he added.
Also Breaking: Several mayors across #TN have been asking for this for over a week, but don’t have the power under various state/local laws. Only, @GovBillLee can issue the order, & I am hopeful he does before it’s too late. Grateful for groups like @tnmed for being speaking out. https://t.co/HRDlV6SzND
— Chaz Molder (@chazmolder) March 28, 2020
The TMA said in its letter that the “only effective mechanism” for slowing the spread of the coronavirus “is increased social distancing.”
“Ideally, we would recommend that these orders close all non-essential businesses, limit all non-essential activities and gatherings of any size, and impose a 14-day self-quarantine on anyone entering our state from another state or country with few exceptions, such as our trucking and delivery systems,” states the letter. “In the absence of a statewide order at this point, your local orders can help protect our population and save lives.”
The letter says that Tennessee’s number of total positive cases continues to “rise at an alarming pace,” noting that an average of 120 new cases were reported each day over a six-day period. The TMA said the “doubling time for cases is just under four days,” which means that in less than four days Tennessee will have twice as many cases as it does today.
Additionally, the TMA predicts that “even the smallest counties” in Tennessee will see significant increases in the near future “because each infected person is currently estimated to be infecting more than three other people in Tennessee.”
“Stay-at-home orders are our best chance to buy time, and implementation now with fewer cases rather than later with overwhelming cases seems most prudent,” the letter concludes. “We need you to trust the advice of our best infectious disease and epidemiological physicians to guide us through this difficult time and do what we can now to protect our critical care and hospital physicians who will be caring for seriously ill patients in the days to come.”
As of Sunday, Tennessee had 1,537 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 133 hospitalizations, and seven deaths.
Read the letter:
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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 “Medical Staff of the Capital” by the Tennessee Medical Association.
Did anyone see the head of this organization on the news last night? He is HYSTERICAL. He said it was going to take someone in the Legislature OR Gov Lee’s Family to DIE before Lee would act. This is an ULTRAliberal group of people with some kind of association with medicine. They interviewed this guy and a couple of other signers: some kind of researcher with no expertise in this and a Dermatologist . Really??
These “associations” have been leftward leaning for years.
First they sent this letter to Gov Lee BUT they leaked it to the Press before it was delivered. THEN, when he didnt cave to THEIR demands, they then go and try to intimidate/scare Mayors/County Execs.
NOW they are going on a PR campaign to FORCE the Gov to bow to THEIR Demands. Something fishy here Folks, TN Star needs to go deeper into this organization.
This thing is MUCH LESS LETHAL than the Flu where already there are already dead from it more than CoVid: This is RIGHT from CDC Website this morning. Where is this “Dr”‘s group on FLU?
CDC estimates* that, from October 1, 2019, through March 21, 2020, there have been:
38,000,000 – 54,000,000
flu illnesses
person coughing icon
18,000,000 – 26,000,000
flu medical visits
doctor patient icon
400,000 – 730,000
flu hospitalizations
hospital room icon
24,000 – 62,000
flu deaths
flu virus icon
Thank you for digging into the TNA. I spent about half hour researching them prior to writing my comment below. Thank you for having more complete sources than I was able to find.
When they start calling for the Corona and Ebola bioweapon patent holders(Pirbright, CDC) and their investors (Gates, Rockefellers) and their implementors (Tulane University, DOD, et al) heads on Pikes for these murders they have perpetrated, I will take them more seriously.
While the virus is something that should not be treated lightly, forcing the entire state or nation into a mandatory lockdown a really bad idea. This will turn a situation that is currently under control to a situation which will spiral out of control very quickly. There are far too many people who, due to financial reasons, are not capable of living in their homes for weeks at a time. While I’m very sure that all the doctors that belong to the Tennessee Medical Association (which is a lobbying group for physicians) are financially well off and could weather a national shutdown, that cannot be said for a very large number of Tennesseans. What are they going to eat? Is the government going to proclaim that people cannot visit their house of worship? That will go over in a big way in Tennessee. There will be an increase in lawlessness when people cannot obtain food. And who defines “non-essential”? In our part of TN there is a noticeable lack of people out and about, that indicates to me that people are voluntarily limiting their travel. Good hygiene practices are going a long way to keep people from becoming infected. I ask Governor Lee to think long and hard about the ramification of a mandatory lockdown of the State. While the TMA has good intentions, the reality is that a lockdown will do far more harm than good.
I disagree. Many other states are doing a mandatory shelter in place, Washington being one. It is slowing the number of new Covid-19 cases with great success. My household in Nashville is sheltering in place. One of us goes to the grocery store every 2 weeks. All non essential businesses are shut down. People are getting unemployment. Will this affect our community for years? Yes. But not as much as if thousands of our friends, family and community die.
Good for you, Jennifer. But I do not want some bureaucrat telling me to stay in my house. Maybe you need to do so in that ‘big” city of Nashville but I do not think the cows around my house are carriers. I am not willing to give up freedom for an uncertain and unnecessary action like that.
Because you are only thinking about yourself!! If everyone would just stay home for 2 weeks without any exceptions.. this thing will kill itself off. The sooner and better everyone complies.. the sooner this will be over and we can all get back to our lives! But it’s people like yourself, who are only concerned about yourself therefore will refuse to stay home that is hurting the rest of us. Go ahead and be “that” rebel and see how long we all will have to suffer for it!
Please lose the “for the common good” mentality. Just because parts of America are suffering the consequences of China’s bungled containment of the virus doesn’t mean that the suffering should be shared equally. If you choose to live in an urban environment with its associated social problems, that doesn’t mean that others should carry your water. It’s comparable the the issue with firearms ownership. Just because there is gun violence in inner city America doesn’t mean that all Americans should have their right to own firearms restricted.
I disagree as well. This is not a one size fits all situation. Lets make everyone suffer just because the people that live in urban areas have closer contact with humanity. My wife and I live in the country and intend on continuing our hikes in the wilderness. Why, because there are no other people around when we go hiking. Physical activity is much more important to us, we are intelligent enough to know how to stay healthy and safe. The H1N1 flu was deadly and killed thousands of Americans. The Obama administration got a free pass for the media at that time. While the Chinese Flu is as serious matter, it is obvious that the MSM is doing all they can to strike fear in Americans and discredit President Trump.
Thank you for digging deeper than I did prior to writing my comment below. I has suspicions but could not validate them.