By RICHARD SKOLNIK
Los Alamos
Dear Senators and Members of Congress:
I write urgently to you, as a New Mexican who has spent 45 years working on global health and is the author of the leading textbook on that subject. I take account in my comments below of discussions with some of the leading economists and medical scientists who work on global health.
An economic stimulus plan may be warranted. However, no amount of economic stimulus can calm the economy in a crisis that is engendered by a disease outbreak. An economic stimulus may be necessary, but it will never be sufficient.
What is needed at least as urgently as an economic stimulus is a “Marshall Plan” that can get to the states, counties, and municipalities the financing they need to fight the outbreak. Only when people feel that the outbreak is over will they return to normal economic life.
In addition, the US federal government must ramp up its support for the states in the most urgent way possible. As you know, we are short of swabs, tests, test readers, masks, PPEs, and ventilators. CDC has now advised frontline providers that they should use bandannas if they can’t get N95 masks. These are what we might expect in the failed low-income states on which I worked, but they are now occurring in the US. These put the health of our frontline health workers and their patients at grave risk. Every global health professional has known for years that diseases emerge and re-emerge and there is no excuse for not being ready for this.
In life, a week does not mean much. In a disease outbreak, every day of delay is an eternity that costs more lives.
New Mexico is leading the nation in many ways in the fight against COVID-19. I hope you will use every ounce of your energy to help Congress focus on not just a “financial stimulus” but also the urgent measures and financing needed to prevent many more deaths than should ever occur.
With profound thanks.
Editor’s note: Richard Skolnik is the former regional director for health for South Asia at the World Bank. He was the director of an AIDS treatment program for Harvard and taught Global Health at the George Washington University and Yale. He is the author of Global Health 101 and the instructor for Yale/Coursera’s Essentials of Global Health.