The following note was emailed by State Representative Mike Connolly, along with the text of letters to his colleagues, and to Governor Baker, urging support for shelter-in-place orders.
I want to take a moment to keep you updated on my efforts in response to the coronavirus emergency.
The past week has been unprecedented for all of us, as the situation seemingly changes by the minute. We are facing challenges, concerns, and crises on multiple-levels and in all directions.
Throughout the week, my legislative aide and I have been busy responding to constituent concerns and collaborating with our colleagues in state and city government. In the next 24 to 36 hours, I plan to send out another email with updates on a variety of topics, from expanded and accelerated unemployment insurance benefits, to an eviction moratorium, to information about childcare facilities and ways that you can help support folks in need.
Right now though, I want to give you a window into some of the big-picture advocacy I am doing in my conversations with the Governor’s staff, House Leadership, and leaders in local government.
Below I am including a pair of letters — the first is a letter I sent to all of my colleagues in the Massachusetts legislature yesterday, and the second is a letter I drafted and that was signed by over 30 colleagues in state and local government and was sent directly to Governor Baker yesterday as well.
As you will see, we are calling on Gov. Baker to issue an order to Shelter In Place. To be clear, “Shelter In Place” isn’t quite as drastic as it sounds — it actually means “stay home, except for food, healthcare and medicine, essential jobs, caring for someone in need, or taking a walk.”
The sooner we are all able to get everyone who possibly can to stay home, the sooner we can “flatten the curve” on the spread of COVID-19 and begin to get back to normal. And to be sure — as we work to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, we must also take action on the state-level and the federal-level on a “People’s Bailout” to protect the working-class and small business owners and make people whole for the many economic losses that are now being suffered.
Please take a look at each of these letters, and as always, do not hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns.
Thanks for reading — and do take care!
~~Mike
Rep. Connolly’s letter to colleagues urging support for Shelter In Place in response to the COVID-19 emergency
MARCH 18, 2020 VIA EMAIL TO ALL STATE LEGISLATORS
Honorable Colleagues:
We are facing the collapse of the healthcare system in Massachusetts in a matter of days or weeks, and it is imperative that Gov. Baker quickly move to issue an order to Shelter In Place for the purpose of suppressing the spread of COVID-19.
Right now, the Baker Administration is responding to this imminent catastrophe in a similar way to how they would respond to an approaching blizzard or hurricane. There’s a great deal of effort being made with respect to preparing the apparatus of state government and coordinating with our municipal and federal partners — and that is all necessary and good.
However, COVID-19 is not like a weather-related natural disaster. Unlike falling snow or blowing wind, we actually have the ability to control, suppress, and practically eliminate the incidence and spread of coronavirus.
Suppression has to be our main and overriding focus right now. Every day and every hour that goes by where aggressive suppression isn’t our primary focus — and every time residents of the Commonwealth are having unnecessary interactions in close proximity with each other — there’s more potential for the virus to be unnecessarily spreading.
The continued transmission of COVID-19 is a catastrophic problem, because this virus doesn’t spread in a linear fashion. It spreads in an exponential or logarithmic fashion. Every three days, we can expect the number of cases to double.
Physicians have told us COVID-19 is some 10 times more contagious than the flu, and that as many as 1 out of every 5 people who are infected will contract a serious pneumonia that will require hospitalization. Epidemiologists have suggested that Massachusetts could see 10,000 cases or more by the end of this month. Our hospitals are on track to look like war-zones in the coming days or weeks.
It must be noted that other countries around the world are generally better prepared to deal with such a pandemic. Our inability to quickly deploy testing will go down in history as a great tragedy. Our lack of preparedness and our already-fractured social safety net means the outcome in the United States could be much worse than what we’ve already seen in China and Italy or other places around the world.
Unfortunately, too many of our fellow residents remain uninformed or have been taking a caviler attitude toward this emergency situation. To be clear, George Q. Daley, the Dean of Harvard Medical School, has called the outbreak of COVID-19, “the single most threatening pandemic to arise in the last century.” Yesterday, I called on local broadcast media to cancel all of their regular programing and focus entirely on instructing the public on how to limit the spread of the virus.
At present, the Baker Administration hasn’t been able to provide anything close to an accurate count of the number of cases in Massachusetts — yesterday the Boston Globe reported that experts believe the Administration’s numbers are wildly off — and just as concerning, the Baker Administration hasn’t shared any of their modeling or their projections for how they expect this to play out in the coming days and weeks.
Yesterday, like many of you, I participated in a conference call with Secretary Sudders. What I heard on the call was troubling because so much of the presentation was focused on the details of managing the response to the disaster. Only a few words were said about the need to “flatten the curve” — but right now, the folks in Italy are warning us that every minute that goes by where we are not incredibly focused on suppression means that more lives will be lost.
As I said on the call yesterday, we need everyone possible to Shelter In Place right now as part of a very aggressive strategy to suppress the explosive spread of this virus — and from there we can figure out all the other details to make this situation workable for the next few weeks at least. And in making this call, we must also take immediate action to provide space for people to quarantine and provide people who are experiencing homelessness with space of their own.
If we continue on the current course, where we are all working around the clock to figure out the details while suggesting an incomplete program of social distancing, the virus can be expected to continuously spread in an exponential fashion, resulting in the breakdown of our healthcare system and other critical systems, thereby making it ultimately impossible for us to address any of other details in the first place.
Also, it should be noted: once we decide to Shelter In Place, the outbreak of the disease will continue to get worse for another two to four weeks before it starts to get better, as additional cases incubate and become apparent. We’re probably going to end up Sheltering In Place anyways, so we might as well start now and save more lives and better preserve our operating capacity.
Right now at a Star Market in my district, I am told that at least three elderly people continue to go to work. I’m about to call the manager and tell them that is not acceptable, particularly given the high-traffic nature of our grocery stores and the risk this disease poses to older people. And in Somerville, I am told crews continue to work on the Green Line Extension project. Again, this is unacceptable, as some of the workers could have coronavirus without even knowing it — and every person who is infected can spread the virus to several other people.
At 11:30 am, a group of state and local colleagues will be sending the attached letter to the governor calling for a Shelter In Place order. The strategies called for in the letter are drawn from what they are doing in the San Francisco Bay Area, where some 7 million people were ordered to Shelter In Place on Tuesday. Please take a look at this website and scroll through it as it explains this new policy: https://sf.gov/stay-home-except-essential-needs
Thank you for all that you are doing, and please be safe and be well.
Yours in service,
Rep. Mike Connolly
This letter is also posted to my State House blog: https://www.repmikeconnolly.org/letter_to_colleagues_urging_support_for_shelter_in_place_response_covid19
Letter from Rep. Connolly and 31 other state and city officials, urging Governor Baker to issue an order for Shelter In Place
Governor Baker:
As state and municipal officials, we are calling on you to issue an order to Shelter In Place.
Physicians tell us COVID-19 is at least 10 times more contagious than the flu, and that as many as 1 out of every 5 people who are infected will contract a serious pneumonia that will require hospitalization. Epidemiologists have suggested that Massachusetts could see 10,000 cases or more by the end of this month.
It is essential that the spread of the virus be suppressed to protect the ability of healthcare providers to handle the influx of new patients and safeguard public health and safety.
We urge that you follow the example set by the City of San Francisco and other communities in the Bay Area, where a Shelter In Place order was issued for some 7 million residents on March 16. New York City has also advised that its 8 million residents should be prepared to Shelter In Place in the very near future.
By “Shelter In Place,” we mean people must be asked to stay home except for essential needs. Vulnerable populations must stay home. Everyone should stay home except to get food, care for a relative or friend, get necessary health care, or go to an essential job. Going outside for walks is permissible, but there can be no congregating in groups and there can be no interaction with playground structures of any kind.
Furthermore, we recognize that by calling for this order, we have an obligation to take all necessary actions to provide shelter for people who need space to quarantine or are experiencing homelessness. Given the nature of COVID-19, congregate settings may not be appropriate. We urge you to use your power to make dorm rooms, hotel rooms, vacant properties, and temporary structures available to all who are in need of shelter.
We thank you for your urgent attention to this emergency situation and look forward to continuing to work in partnership with you as we do everything possible to maintain the capacity of our healthcare system and prevent loss of life in the days and weeks ahead.
Yours in service,
Rep. Mike Connolly, Cambridge
Rep. Kay Khan, Newton
Rep. Tami Gouveia, Acton
Rep. Maria Robinson, Framingham
Rep. Jack Lewis, Framingham
Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa, Northampton
Rep. Nika Elugardo, Boston
Rep. Denise Provost, Somerville
Rep. Jay Livingstone, Boston
Rep. Michelle DuBois, Brockton
Rep. Tram Nguyen, Andover
Rep. Adrian Madaro, Boston
Rep. Natalie Higgins, Leominster
Rep. Christine Barber, Somerville
Rep. Carmine Gentile, Sudbury
Rep. Mary Keefe, Worcester
Rep. Ruth Balser, Newton
Senator Jamie Eldridge, Acton
Senator Becca Rausch, Needham
Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui, Cambridge
Vice Mayor Alanna Mallon, Cambridge
City Councilor Marc McGovern, Cambridge
City Councilor Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler, Cambridge
City Councilor Quinton Zondervan, Cambridge
City Councilor Denise Simmons, Cambridge
City Councilor Dennis Carlone, Cambridge
City Councilor Patty Nolan, Cambridge
City Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen, Somerville
City Councilor Mark Niedergang, Somerville
City Councilor Katjana Ballantyne, Somerville
City Councilor Jesse Clingan, Somerville
City Councilor J.T. Scott, Somerville