Words I Would Like to Hear from the President

by Marilyn Moore

Good evening, my fellow Americans.  These are trying, challenging, unprecedented times.  I want to visit with you tonight about some things that I’m thinking about.

Let me begin by expressing my deep sympathy to the families of the 58 Americans who have died from COVID-19.  These 58 persons, men and women, living in various regions of our country, and their families, are the faces of this disease….a reminder that for every number we cite, there is a person, a family, a loved one, within that number.  I join these families in their grief….

I’ve been thinking about why this disease is so scary, and I think the answer is in the name of the virus – the novel coronavirus.  This virus is novel, it’s new, and we don’t yet know much about it.  It seemed to spring up quickly and spread rapidly.  We had a minimal number of test kits for it, and we still don’t have an adequate number.  We don’t have a vaccination against it, and we don’t yet have an evidence-based treatment for it.  We don’t know for sure how it spreads, and we don’t know why it’s so mild for some patients and so dangerous, indeed, fatal, for others.  The symptoms are similar to that of a cold and influenza, but it’s much more deadly.  And we don’t know how to stop it.  This is a dangerous disease; it’s spreading rapidly, and people have died.  Those statistics will get worse before they get better.  All of this is scary to most of us.

I want to acknowledge and thank the scientists, in this country and around the world, who are working with diligence and persistence to answer those questions.  The infection disease specialists, the epidemiologists, the microbiologists, and those from many other disciplines, who are at the Center for Disease Control, the World Health Organization, and many public and private research universities are engaged in basic and applied research to understand this virus and this disease, to develop and test vaccines and treatment plans, so that all of us will have a better chance at health.  We must commit more of our national resources to this research, now and into the future, and I pledge my support for that effort.  Thank you to the scientists; your expertise is absolutely essential.  I urge all of us to support their work, and I ask that you check the WHO, the CDC, and your local and state health departments’ web sites for updated information and recommendations; please, trust the scientists. 

All of us have heard of the importance of maintaining social distance and of staying home if we’re ill.  I want to acknowledge that there are many people in our country who will not be able to do this.  They are people who are exposed to the disease, because they are the people whose jobs don’t include the option of working from home. Many of them are people who serve us – they check us out at the grocery store, they prepare and serve food to us, they make our favorite beverage at the coffee shop, they clean the places we work.  And through their work, they come in contact with members of the public hundreds of times a day.  They are also the people least likely to have health insurance, least likely to have paid sick leave.   The recently passed bipartisan legislation will address a safety net for people who need to stay home because they’re ill but who have no paid sick leave.  It’s in the public interest, it’s in our interest, that people not have to make a choice between staying home while ill and earning the salary their family needs.  We need to address this issue on a more comprehensive basis in the future, and I pledge that I will support this basic public health need.

There are other employees who are also serving us and working in jobs that cannot be done from home, and those are our medical providers.  Thank you, thank you, thank you, to physicians and nurses and nurse assistants and others who care for seriously ill patients in hospitals and nursing homes and clinics.  You are truly heroes, and I salute you. 

As schools across the country have closed in an effort to minimize the spread of this disease, the role that schools play in caring for our schools has become stunningly clear.  Schools, especially public schools, because most children are in public schools, are the reliably safe and nurturing place for millions of children every day.  And as one person said to me, “I realize how fragile the safety net is for so many of our children when school is suddenly canceled.”  Many children have their best or only meals of the day at school.  When they are home, there may not be an adult with them.  This is not because their parents don’t love them or care about them, but because their parents don’t have the resources to quickly arrange another child care option for an unexpected and lengthy time out of school.  I want to thank public schools for the work they do every day to teach our children and to care for them in so many ways.  I want to thank those non-profit agencies, like food banks and family services agencies, whose staff and volunteers are stepping up to provide basic support to children and their families during these coming weeks.  You do it all the time; it’s simply more urgent, and more visible, right now.  Thank you.

From all that I’ve observed, and learned, over the past several weeks, it is so very clear that we are a global, interconnected people.  When the economy in one country collapses, it affects the economy in other countries.  When a novel virus appears, it does not stop at national boundaries, nor at the edge of an ocean.  Within our nation, when one system, whether it is public health, or K-12 education, or transportation, is affected, all other systems are affected.  We do not live in isolation, and we cannot thrive in isolation.  We are meant to live in community, and the community is global.

Which brings me to one last thought this evening.  Some members of our communities are much more vulnerable than others – the elderly, those with underlying health conditions, and those who have compromised immune systems.  These people are taking seriously the recommendation to stay inside, to reduce contact with others.  Many of these persons will be isolated for several weeks.  I am heartened by the stories that I have heard of neighbors and volunteers who are checking on these good folks, who are delivering groceries to those who are isolated, who are making phone calls and using social media to maintain connection.  Physical isolation is hard; if it becomes social isolation, it’s even more difficult.  Thank you to those of you who are reaching out in this important way.

We will come through this in some time, though we don’t yet know when that will be.  (It’s among the many things we don’t know.)  And when we do, when we look back at this time, I hope we will learn from it.  I hope we will view our neighbors, those who live on our block and those who live in other nations, with kindness and compassion, rather than with resentment and suspicion.  We each have the potential to make bonds stronger, to add to the quality of life for our families and for all families.  I invite you to live into that potential.  May God bless all of us and each of us, wherever we may be on planet Earth.