Letter to Mayor Bowser and Councilman White

By Jamila White | Humanitarian, DC Resident, WCAPS Member

Dear Mayor Bowser and Councilman White, 

I hope this email finds you and your families safe and well. As a Ward 8 resident and seasoned Emergency Response Specialist and Humanitarian, I want to applaud and commend you on the steps taken within the last week to slow the spread of COVID 19. I know firsthand how difficult it is to take drastic efforts that disrupt everyday life, infringe on daily enjoyment and freedoms and affect the economy and families. As former Secretary Michael O. Leavit said in 2007, "everything we do before a pandemic will seem alarmist. Everything we do after a pandemic will seem inadequate. This is the dilemma we face, but it should not stop us from doing what we can to prepare.” I also know that yourselves, emergency responders and health officials are working around the clock with little sleep and at the same time making plans for your own families. No words can express our gratitude, thank you all.   

Though DC is making considerable progress, driving around the city and talking to residents one would think it’s any given Saturday or Spring Break. People are touring the mall, riding water paddle boats, playing volleyball, gathering outside and spreading the virus. Behavior is not changing - we are very much behind containing and controlling this outbreak and need drastic measures to catch up and eventually contain the outbreak. While the next 14 days are critical, we know that this pandemic is going to last for the next several months. Two days ago, the NY Times ran an article that stated, “around the world, the official virus count has climbed above 142,000. In the United States, scientists expect that between tens of millions and 215 million Americans will ultimately be infected, and the death toll could range from the tens of thousands to 1.7 million.” While no one knows the infection or death rate, we need to plan for worst-case by intensifying response efforts for the next 3 months to flatten the curve and save thousands of Washingtonians. I know you have some of the brightest brains managing the response however after working frontline on the West Africa Ebola Response, Hurricane Dorian, Refugee Camps and in protracted conflict countries for well over a decade, my suggestions reflect firsthand solutions that work. These suggestions do not include security, economic recovery, or medical/epidemiology recommendations.  Overall, we need to shut this city down for no less than 30 days until mass testing and containment efforts can occur.

America is the richest nation in the world with an abundance of financial and intellectual resources to fight this epidemic. Now we need the political will. 

Community Mobilization: Residents are scared, frustrated, angry, anxious, overwhelmed, depressed, unbothered, and more.  We are getting confusing information about the virus and have no way to communicate our concerns to the government (local or federal). During this time, we need to rebuild trust and improve two-way communication between residents and leaders to help behavior change to end this pandemic. Residents need to understand your response plan, our contribution, and responsibility and how we will be impacted. We can work together on getting through the coming months.  Folks need to understand that in two weeks life will not return to normal and that our daily lives will drastically change for several months. Weddings, parties, graduations, proms, anniversaries, birthdays, reunion and more will be rescheduled or unfortunately canceled. Life may feel like a standstill, bills will go unpaid, savings depleted, credit score decreases and more lasting effects after the pandemic is over. And unfortunately, some businesses will close and not reopen, especially minority-owned businesses which are more vulnerable and according to FEMA, 40 percent of small businesses never reopen after a disaster and another 25 percent, that does reopen, fail within a year. To help folks be prepared and not scared, I suggest developing an interactive communication plan that includes two-way communication and multiple communication channels. Remember everyone is not on social media or has internet access (especially in Ward 8) – while these are needed mechanisms to distribute information on virtual town halls and more, we are excluding a large population including those who are most vulnerable. The city needs to develop two-way communication mechanisms to engage and interact with residents- a hotline is recommended (more below) and distribute information through SMS and radio. Additional efforts include:

·       Distribute household and personal cleansing kit that includes a mask to all residents to help reduce financial burden of buying these items, ease fear to stop hoarding and reduce need for people to leave the house. These kits should also contain information on the virus, how it is spread, how long it last on surfaces, how to disinfect and protect yourself, and summary of the city’s response, community engagement, and communication plan. You can work with the community groups and organizations that are providing food to assemble and distribute the kits.

·       Information on sanitization- in my opinion the current guidance on sanitization falls too short and handwashing is not enough. There is little guidance on disinfecting your homes! C-19 survives on surfaces so that means every surface you encounter needs to be sanitized BEFORE you bring it into your home. In my home, we take our shoes off at the door disinfect the bottom of our shoes and clothes and we wear the same jacket out daily and hang it on the back porch and not in our closet; in addition, we sanitize mail, groceries (including washing produce with soap and water before putting them in the fridge or bowl), door knobs, basically EVERYTHING.  And we only go to the grocery store once a week, no running to the store on a daily basis.

·   Mental Health- always an afterthought but mental health support, trauma, and PTSD efforts need to be incorporated into the response and services setup for remote/virtual counseling.

· Millennials and healthy people- the health of typical Americans and that of a typical Chinese or European is vastly different. Exercise rates, access to health care, non-infectious disease rates, life expectancy, obesity and more is drastically different. The narrative that healthy people and millennial's will survive or not get the virus is not one that I suggest we use in the U.S. until we know more about how the virus works in our ecosystem and population.   

It took us almost 2 years, an estimated $53 Billion Dollars, and deaths in the tens of thousands (these are only the deaths reported, actual death rates are predicted to be much higher) before Ebola was controlled. Reflecting back, there were two main reasons the epidemic last so long: 1) poor leadership and political will during the crucial early months that could have contained the epidemic; and 2) community mistrust of government and not believing the virus was real. It took almost 9 months before the community really began to trust the response and change behavior because they were not involved in plans, strategies and their norms were not respected or reflected in response efforts at first. In America, we are no different – it’s worse here because of the sheer number of leaders, celebrities, and influencers denouncing or downplaying the virus the early months and many messages we continue to get today. 

Communication and Data: There is too much misinformation and not enough of the right information. How many residents know how to treat the virus at home and not infect anyone else in the house? Ways the virus is transmitted besides coughing, handshaking and sneezing? Where to get testing? When mass testing will be available and how will it work? Who to call if you think you have the virus and what to do? We need a COVID-19 24-hour toll free information line (short code i.e. 211) where residents can call to get information on the virus, provide the city with information on how the virus is affecting them, etc. A call line is excellent communication and data collecting tool. Data collected can be helped to influence response efforts.

 Industry and Businesses

• Determine which industries and businesses NEED to be open and close everything else. I fully understand the economic effects (both in terms of revenue for the city, wages for employees, and profits for businesses) however economic loss for one to two quarters will be far less than the economic loss if we fail to act now to contain this pandemic. Anyway, the dead can’t work and since big businesses have not paid taxes for the last few years, now is the time for them to use those savings to invest in country (as it was intended). Suggestions:

• Do cleaners/laundry mats need to be open for the public or can these services be delivered only (if people knew how to wash their clothes at home manually, I would recommend you close these places too)? Do retail stores, florists, corner and convenience stores, every hotel, relators, garage, car wash, and restaurant smoke and liquor stores, banks, malls, corner stores, and tourist activities are open? Many offices are closed however some are still open- which ones are essential and when can people work from home? Shut it down. For restaurants and food services that remain open, there should be delivered only or close them?  Does all construction need to continue or can some resume after we have mass testing and control in place?

• For businesses that need to remain open (including those in construction), we need to improve sanitation and hygiene practices. Except for doctors’ offices, many businesses (national chains and locally owned) have yet to implement basic health and sanitation practices to prevent the spread of germs and the virus. To start, I suggest the city enforcing stricter standard for any place that will be open including but not limited to:

• Handwashing before entry- handwashing stations or antibacterial stations setup at the entrance where patrons must use before entry and for large grocery stores install various antibacterial stations throughout the store.

• Limit operating hours and number of persons that can be in a store at one time– this will give stores time to clean at night and keep people home. During Ebola, only pharmacies and hospitals were open on Sundays and during the week businesses/stores closed by 7 P.M. and restaurants by 9 P.M.

• Temperature checks- enforce temperature checks before entering any open buildings and do not allow anyone with a temperature to enter (of course this excludes hospitals).

• Worker safety- at a minimum all workers should be wearing gloves and masks to reduce their exposure. I have seen very few uber drivers, cashiers and service workers wearing any personal protective gear.

• COVID-19 Information (Prevention and Treatment) Signage throughout the store- for example, signs to remind people how to sneeze instead of sneezing in their hand and touching all the produce 

• Food safety- Ban buffets/hot bars/salad bars/etc. – food needs to be behind a cover and served to patrons instead of self-serve. Stores need to clean shelves and disinfect nightly and figure out ways to limit customers from touching stuff.

• Cleaning Grocery carts- customers will need to share responsibility in cleaning the carts and grocery stores should provide cleaning wipes at the exit to ensure that each customer wipes down their cart after using it.

• Drones!! As we are going to be relying more on delivery, we should test drone deliveries to reduce the exposure to the delivery workers. Drones have been used in several emergencies to deliver food, aid, supplies, and general packages.

• City services- what city services need to continue, and which can be suspended?

• Parks, the National Mall, etc.- shut it down and post-security there for enforcement. 

Treatment Centers and Ambulance Services – we know that the infection rates will increase creating a demand for health systems. During Ebola, temporary hospitals were set up (made of prefabricated materials and/or old buildings renovated) to treat and quarantine Ebola-infected patients. This allowed the other health facilities and hospitals to be dedicated to non-Ebola related services. Will all hospitals treat infected patients, or will certain hospitals be dedicated to treatment? Are we considering using temporary treatment centers external from current hospitals? Has there been discussion on the following:

·       Encourage hospitals to cancel non-essential surgeries to keep beds open?

·       Ambulance- for those without transportation and cannot take taxi or uber and need to get to a hospital will they just call 911 and use the same ambulance as all other patients? If so, will each ambulance be completely disinfected after each use to the standard necessary to kill the virus? Are there stations already step up for this?

·       Medical community- does every appointment need to happen? Can that non-essential procedure or appointment wait? What types of medical offices should be open so that all other medical professionals can be reserved to help in this response? If the WHO/scientific estimates are even 25% correct, we will need all medical hands-on deck thus need to start preparing for that now. 

Death/Burials

What will happen when people start to die at home from C-19? Do we know if the virus contaminates groundwater? Will families be able to have funerals (this is a serious issue in Italy and was a huge challenge during Ebola)? If so, are funeral homes and burial grounds equipped to deal with the bodies and decontaminate? If not, are plans underway? Will bodies are able to be buried at a specific graveyard- do we even have space/plans/resources for mass graves?  If not, are we prepared with the trauma that will come from not burying your loved ones? These are just a few questions that we will need to answer and discuss with the community.

Ward 8 Access to Food

As you know our ward has the greatest food insecurity and poverty in the city without large savings, credit cards, and excess cash to buy 100 rolls of toilet paper or stock up and hunker down for short or long periods of time. While many local nonprofitable, religious organizations and community groups have galvanized to ensure our most vulnerable are not neglected, their efforts need to be supported by quick equitable policies to ensure Ward 8 and other vulnerable residents have access to food.  For example, the city can:

·       Limit price gauging

·       Work with grocery stores to set up regular weekly pop-up and mobile grocery stations throughout Ward 8 so residents do not have to travel far- hopefully, walk- to get needed staples and produce

·       Set aside priority hours and lanes in grocery for disabled, elderly and vulnerable  

Public Transportation

·       Metro/bus- is it possible to limit mass transportation for essential workers, people who have to get to the airport, and emergencies?

·       Uber and taxis- provide greater sanitization/disinfecting guidance including cleaning everything (including the seat belt) after each passenger and stop ride-sharing. Work with whoever cleans the city cars to allow for taxis/ubers to use for daily self-cleaning. In addition, drivers should wear protective gear to protect themselves from passengers- we know that people will call taxis/car services to take them to the hospital and doctors’ appointments thus drivers can be at a higher risk.

·       As movement is restricted, it’s assumable that the demand for public transportation will decrease slightly (though more folks may use taxi/car service to avoid mass transportation). If so, suggest taxi association work with local grocery stores for home delivery services. 

Schools

Close schools for the rest of the year and transition to virtual learning via internet, radio, TV, and perhaps small weekly neighborhood-level learning groups. For students without access to the internet, provide hotspots and tablets. You can partner with the private sector to donate these items- for example, Apple didn’t pay any taxes last year so ask them to donate tablets for city students.  I’m sure the Department of Education has creative solutions to continue learning but to keep the virus contained schools will need to be closed. This is another area that will need community engagement and communication. 

Homeless- how will we protect and care for the homeless during this time? My suggestion is to provide temporary housing at hotels that are closed. 

Protection

It is widely known that during disasters sexual and physical exploitation and abuse generally increase. Home is not safe for everyone and there will be children and women at risk for increased sexual and physical abuse. Response efforts should incorporate a protection mechanism. 

I hope this guide is useful as you continue to update your Response Strategy.  

Best,
Jamila White