Open Letter to Governor Charlie Baker Regarding

Safe Opening of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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Governor Charlie Baker

Office of the Governor

24 Beacon St., Room 280

Boston, MA 02133

CC: Secretary Marylou Sudders

Executive Office of Health and Human Services

One Ashburton Place, 11th Floor

Boston, MA 02108

September 29, 2020

Honorable Governor Baker and Secretary Sudders:

We write on behalf of the undersigned organizations, healthcare workers, public health and community leaders and concerned community members in appreciation of your administration’s responsiveness to recent increases in COVID-19 case rates. Yet we are concerned by the persistently elevated infection and death rates in our state, as well as the emphasis on personal responsibility and police enforcement over mandatory standards for workplace and community safety.

Normalizing and tolerating that 10 to 20 residents of our Commonwealth are dying from this virus every day is a cheapening of human life that we affirm is unacceptable. Consider our just outrage if unsafe cars were killing 70 of our neighbors every week. To accept this number of avoidable deaths, related to insufficient safety measures, is on the same moral level.

Massachusetts’ infection and death rates remain higher overall than in early July, and are significantly higher than our peers. Our infection rates are currently 3-4 times greater than in Italy, Canada, Australia, and Germany.^[1] Massachusetts death rates are more than double those in Pennsylvania.^[2] 

Recent news reports show that cities and neighborhoods where immigrant, Latinx and Black frontline workers live continue to suffer the highest rates of infection. Lynn, Chelsea, Everett, East Boston, Springfield, and Brockton are not cities where residents are holding beach parties without masks. They are homes to workers with no recourse against employers who violate safety rules, to parents who cannot stay home when ill and still feed their children, and to residents who decline testing for fear their results may be divulged to police and to ICE.

Frontline workers still are not protected against retaliation if they report failure of their employer to comply with recommended measures.^[3] Latinx and Black residents, who have borne an overwhelmingly disproportionate burden of the pandemic, are more likely to work in essential industries with increased exposure risk:^[4] for example, the lack of mandatory, consistently enforced workplace standards especially increases the risk for both staff and residents of nursing homes and other care facilities, as well as those cared for at home, our elders and disabled relatives and friends.

Personal responsibility is a key component of a successful COVID-19 response, but it is not enough. We respectfully urge you to publish metrics and cut-off points for re-opening and re-closing decisions, and to implement the following protective measures:

1. Proactively reduce and control current unsafe conditions.

1. Reinstate restrictions on casinos and indoor dining. Gatherings including dining in indoor spaces have been linked to outbreaks around the world.
2. Announce and enforce mandatory workplace safety standards generated in collaboration with occupational safety and health officials, labor unions, and community organizations, which include provision of all necessary PPE as well as training sessions for donning and doffing for all employees.
3. Implement regular safety inspections by occupational health officials and collaborate with the district attorney’s office when employers repeatedly fail to maintain safe working conditions.
4. Update worker’s compensation rules to include presumption of occupational exposure for those in public-facing or otherwise high-risk roles.
5. Increase frequency of MBTA service on high-demand bus and rail lines to reduce crowding and the associated risk of COVID-19 spread. Fund the MBTA appropriately to maintain service with decreased ridership.
6. Provide safe alternative transportation to Personal Care Attendants, Home Health Aides, and Nursing Home workers, to protect the clients for whom they care.
7. Tighten regulation of nursing homes to prevent transmission of COVID-19 between residents, and to ensure the safety of all staff.

2. Strengthen testing, contact tracing and reporting systems.

1. Increase access to testing and decrease turn-around time of test results. Outpatient COVID testing currently has widely reported delays (ranging from five to up to 14 days), which moots contact tracing efforts as cases are unaware of their status while potentially exposing others.
2. Invest and strengthen the local public health system to expand and improve contact tracing: Dedicate state resources to ensure that all communities have capacity for contact tracing.
3. Report detailed trends in contact tracing monthly, such as the percent of cases tied to workplaces, household transmission, socializing, or of unknown origin.
4. Collect and report occupation and race data in all testing venues. The course of the pandemic in Massachusetts has exacerbated racial injustice; widespread failure to collect data has further exacerbated this injustice by  obscuring these facts.

3. Ensure all Massachusetts residents are able to trust and to safely comply with public health directives.

1. Do not use police to fulfill public health roles. This undermines community trust and willingness to participate in important testing and contact tracing programs, especially for residents of color and undocumented residents. It also creates additional opportunities for police violence in vulnerable communities.^[5] 
2. Support An Act to Guarantee Housing Stability (H.5166/S.2992) to prevent evictions during and in the aftermath of this pandemic. Increase funding for housing voucher programs such as MRVP, AHVP, and the DMH subsidy. Evictions and foreclosures push residents to live with another family or to enter homeless shelters, fostering crowded conditions that increase the risk of COVID-19 spread.
3. Support the Safe Communities Act (H.3573/S.1401) and the Work and Family Mobility Act (H.3012/S.2061). Ensure that undocumented residents are able to safely access medical and public health resources, and drive to work without fear, as they comprise a substantial component of our essential frontline workers.
4. Support the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act. Expanded testing will not stop viral spread if workers cannot afford to stay home when they are sick.

Protecting the life and health of all residents of the Commonwealth is the best support for our economy. Avoidable deaths and long-term disability from COVID-19 infections inflict not only unacceptable human pain and moral harm, but also economic decimation on our state. We respectfully request that you implement the necessary steps to protect us from these short- and long-term consequences.

Sincerely,

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Organizations:

The Massachusetts Coalition for Health Equity

Task Force on Coronavirus and Equity

Massachusetts COVID Response Alliance

MassCOSH - MA Coalition for Occupational Safety & Health

Massachusetts Public Health Association

Center for Public Representation

Dominican Development Center, Inc.

SEIU 888

The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts

Health Resources in Action

Immigrants' Assistance Center, Inc.

Disability Policy Consortium

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1445

The National Association of Social Workers - Massachusetts Chapter

Jane Doe Inc.

Lawrence CommunityWorks

Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless

Health Leads

Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security

Massachusetts Peace Action

Watertown Citizens for Peace, Justice and the Environment

Greater Boston Chapter of United Spinal Association

JP Progressives

Allston Brighton Health Collaborative

Mass Families Organizing For Change

Well Minds Consulting and Psychiatry

Right Care Boston

Hingham Medical Care Inc.

Housing = Health

Individuals:

Representative Mike Connolly

Representative Nika Elugardo

Regina LaRocque, MD MPH, Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

Lara Jirmanus, MD MPH, Family Physician, Cambridge Health Alliance

Caroline Buckee, PhD, Associate Professor of Epidemiology, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health

Vanessa Urhiafe, MPH

Rebecca Rogers, MD, Primary Care Physician, Cambridge Health Alliance

Alan Papscun

Carolyn Arnold, MD MPH, Resident Physician

Aiham Korbage, MD, Radiologist at Lowell General Hospital

Jennifer K. Brody MD, MPH, AAHIVS, Instructor of Medicine at HMS

Carly Bobinsky, Social Worker

Zach Johnston, Software Engineer, CHA

Ream Akkeh, FNP-C, Manet Community Health Center

Karl Kossel

Vanpat Pensuwan, MD, Family Medicine Resident, Cambridge Health Alliance

Sonia Lipson, Family Nurse Practitioner, Neponset Health Center

Zoe Weinstein, MD, Assistant Professor, Boston University/Boston Medical Center

Rachel Nardin MD, Physician, Cambridge Health Alliance

Katherine Miller MD, Primary Care Physician, Cambridge Health Alliance

Tania Erlij, LICSW

Sarah Swettberg, Ed.M, MSN, FNP-BC

Yelizaveta Dimant, LICSW, Care Manager, Cambridge Health Alliance

Claire Paduano, MD, Family Physician, Manet CHC

David Himmelstein, MD, Lecturer in Medicine, Harvard Medical School

Sam Tanyos, MD, Hospitalist, Brigham and Women's Hospital

Charlene Saulnier FNP-BC, Primary Care Provider, Cambridge Health Alliance

Talia Lewis MD, Physician, Cambridge Health Alliance

Melanie J Brunt, Chief of Endocrinology, Cambridge Health Alliance

Jim Recht, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

Maureen Paul, MD, MPH, Planned Parenthood

Marcela Horvitz-Lennon, MD, MPH, Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard Medical School

Eduardo Siqueira, MD, MPH, Associate Professor at UMass Boston

Ivys Fernandez-Pastrana, JD, Program Manager, Center for Family Navigation and Community Health Promotion

Brita Lundberg, MD

Kathryn Corelli, MD, Medicine Resident

Gina L Berrettoni, PTA, Beth Israel Deaconess HealthCare in Chelsea

Shazia Ahmed, MD, Physician, Milford Franklin Eye Center

Richa Gawande PhD, Research Scientist, Cambridge Health Alliance Center for Mindfulness and Compassion

Wesley Chou, Medical Student, Harvard Medical School

Mary Jirmanus Saba

Brian Wilson, MFA, Faculty, Framingham State University

Ana Schreck, LICSW, Social Worker, Cambridge Health Alliance

Jennifer Valenzuela, LICSW, MPH, Chief People & Equity Officer, Health Leads

Sunny Kung, MD, Resident Physician, Brigham and Women's Hospital

Azeddine Fadli, Consultant

Jessica Landau-Taylor, Medical Student, Boston University School of Medicine

Nayab Ahmad, Boston Medical Center

Susan Racine, MD, Primary Care Physician, Atrius Health

Omar Wahid, MD, Family Medicine Resident, Cambridge Health Alliance

Tiffany Joseph, PhD, Associate Professor of Sociology, Northeastern University

Brooke Schober, LCSW Clinical Social Worker,

Rhonda Berkower, JD

Irving Kirsch, PhD

Mallika Sabharwal, Resident Physician

Cornelia van der Ziel, MD, Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility

Genevieve Preer MD, Pediatrician

Michael Marston, former In Home Direct Care Worker

Rebekah Rollston, MD, MPH, Family Medicine Physician, Cambridge Health Alliance

Cornelia van der Ziel, MD, Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility

Malika Jefferson, Mass Adapt

Eduardo Siqueira, Associate Professor, UMass Boston

Afi Semenya, MD, MPH, Clinical Instructor in Family Medicine, Boston Medical Center

Julia Koehler, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts Coalition for Health Equity

Cindy Lu

Elizabeth Tammaro, MD, Cambridge Health Alliance

Marilyn Levin, Program Admin, CHA Psychology Training

Larissa Wenren, MD, Pediatrics Resident, Boston Children's Hospital and Boston Medical Center

Noel Sanders, Project Organizer, BCHI & CLVU

Anne Wheelock, MSW

Juliana E. Morris, MD, EdM

Hope Haff, Member of the National Association of Social Workers, MA (NASW-MA)

Mary Ann Kopydlowski, RN

Jean Zotter, JD

Caren Solomon, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Medicine, HMS

Alex Pirie, Coordinator, Immigrant Service Providers Group/Health

Carmen Rosa Norona, LICSW

Julianna Brody-Fialkin, LICSW MSW MPH, Social Worker/Project Manager, DotHouseHealth

Emily Achtenberg, MCP, Affordable Housing Consultant

Mardge Cohen MD, Physician, Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program

Ellie Grossman, MD MPH, Medical Director, Primary Care/Behavioral Health Integration, Cambridge Health Alliance

PF Gutlove DMD

Meghan Doherty, LICSW, Social Worker, DMH

Henry H. Wortis, M.D., Professor, Immunology, Tufts University School of Medicine

Radhika Jain, MD, Resident Physician,

Karl Koessel

Sonia Lipson, Nurse Practitioner, Neponset Health Center

Mardge Cohen MD, Physician , Boston Health Carr for the Homeless Program

Miriam C Tepper, Cambridge Health Alliance

Melanie Adem, LICSW, Clinical Social Worker, Cambridge Health Alliance

Carl Fulwiler, Physician, Cambridge Health Alliance

Patricia Tholl

Josie Fisher, MD MPP, Internal Medicine Resident, PGY-1, Massachusetts General Hospital

Susan Yanow, MSW, Consultant at Ibis Reproductive Health

Hannah Mason, LCSW, Social Worker, CHA

Chas Griffin

Margie Skeer, ScD, MPH, MSW, Associate Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine

Dorothy Anderson

MLou Crimmins, Retired Educator

Elizabeth Tammaro, MD, Family Medicine Resident Physician, Cambridge Health Alliance

Erica Brooks, MD, Cardiologist, Cambridge Health Alliance

David N. Sontag, Managing General Counsel and Co-Chair of the Ethics Advisory Committee, Beth Israel Lahey Health

Andrea Gordon, Associate Professor, Tufts University Family Medicine Residency at Cambridge Health Alliance

Meredith Jones, LICSW, Social Work Care Manager

Aisha James, MD, Primary Care Physician, Massachusetts General Hospital, Everett Family Care

Lianna Karp, MD, Child Psychiatry Fellow, MGH

Zoe Silver, LCSW, Clinical Social Worker, Cambridge Health Alliance

Sudhakar Nuti, MD, MSc, Physician, Massachusetts General Hospital

Amy Tressan, MD, Physician, Cambridge Health Alliance

Cordelia Ross, MD, Physician, MGH

Jacqueline Clauss, MD, PhD, Child Psychiatrist, MGH

Jaime Lederer, MSW, MPH, Cambridge Health Alliance

Martha Sola-Visner, MD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School

Amy Triche, DO, Pediatric ID Fellow

Rebecca Hillel, PsyD, Psychology Postdoctoral Fellow, Cambridge Health Alliance

Jacqueline Hogan, MS, Psychology PhD Student Trainee, Cambridge Health Alliance

Charlene Saulnier FNP-BC, Primary Care Provider, Cambridge Health Alliance

Elizabeth Pinsky, MD, Instructor in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

Tia Tucker MD, MPH, Family Medicine Physician, Cambridge Health Alliance

Vanpat Pensuwan, MD, Family Medicine Resident PGY-3, Cambridge Health Alliance

Shivani Reddy MD MS, Physician Researcher, RTI

Inge Damm-Luhr, PhD

Ellen Golub, Professor Emerita, Salem State University

Vivian Troen

Pam Adelstein, MD

Aviva Bock NCC, Psychotherapist ,

Gabrielle Bromberg, MD, Hospital Medicine Attending Physician, MGH

Shannon Hogan, MD, MPH, Family Medicine Resident, Cambridge Health Alliance

Brita Lundberg, MD

Eirini Iliaki, MD, MPH, Infectious Diseases Physician, CHA

John S. Adams, MD, MPH, Physician, Cambridge Health Alliance

Kate Byrne, MS, RN

Ciara Wels, Family Care Partner, Cambridge Health Alliance

Andrea Ciaranello, MD, MPH, Infectious Disease Physician, Associate Professor of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School

Zelda Gamzu

Calpurnyia Roberts, PhD

Tess Rauscher, Rightcare Alliance, Student at Emerson College

Liz Benjamin, Student at Emerson College

Amy LaMothe, PharmD, BCPS, Associate Professor at MCPHS University

Diego Torres, Student

Bari Brodsky MD, Primary Care Physician, Cambridge Health Alliance

Valerie Harrison

Claudette Beit-Aharon

D. Damm-Luhr

Karen Andres, Arbitrator/Mediator and Retired Administrative Law Judge

Rachel Lazerus

Melanie Brunt MD, MPH, Chief of Endocrinology, Cambridge Health Alliance

Julia Randall MD, Physician, Cambridge Health Alliance

Mark Eisenberg MD, Physician, MGH

Susan Hoye, Health Educator/Tobacco Treatment, Cambridge Health Alliance

Rebecca M Beit-Aharon

Susan Hall

Lana Habash, MD, Family Physician, Clinical Assistant Professor, Massachusetts Coalition for Health Equity

Andrea Jorjorian Twomey, MS, PA-C, PA, Essex County OB/GYN Associates

Emily Cleveland Manchanda, MD, MPH, Emergency Medicine Physician, Boston Medical Center

Leigh Simmons, MD, Physician, Massachusetts General Hospital, Right Care Boston

Sandy Eaton, RN, Retired Critical Care Nurse, South Shore Coalition for Human Rights

Suzanne Verme

Joe Herosy, South Shore Table Coordinator, Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance

Roberta Leviton, Ph.D.

Nate Alhalel MD, MPH, Physician, Massachusetts General Hospital

Phyllis Kirschner

Shela Sridhar, MD, MPH, Physician

Leigh Baltzer, Concerned Parent and Worker

Kristi Ho

Courtney Champagne

Melissa Huser, Medical interpreter for Spanish and Portuguese, Cambridge Health Alliance

Nabil A. Khan, CRAA, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

Alison Presti, MD, Family Medicine Physician

John Urwin, MD, Resident Physician, BIDMC

Margot Tang, MD, MPH, Physician, BMC

Susan Phillips, Ph.D., Psychologist

Robert V. McCarthy, PhD

Noah Beit-Aharon

Michael Mayo

Lisa Schweigler, MD, MPH, MS, Emergency/Urgent Care Physician, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Susan Massad, Professor, Food and Nutrition, Framingham State University

Margot Tang, MD, MPH, Physician, BMC

Alexis Ladd, MPH, Marketing, Cambridge Health Alliance

Judy Wolberg, Retired Nurse Midwife

Roger L. Rice , Executive Director, Multicultural Education, Training & Advocacy Inc.

Jim Recht, MD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry Part-Time, Harvard Medical School and Cambridge Health Alliance

Ellen Resnik MA, Psychotherapist, Brookline Counseling & Mediation

Olivia Ladd-Luthringshauser, BS

Michael R. Hugo, JD, Public Health Consultant, Phrase Associates

Jack Beinashowitz, PhD, Psychologist/ Associate Director Program for Psychotherapy, Cambridge Health Alliance

Mercy Anampiu, MBA, Community Leader

Robert E. Berry, Jr, MD, Attending Physician, OB/GYN, Cambridge Health Alliance

Rebecca Lichtin MD, Resident Physician, Brigham and Women's Hospital

Talia Lewis MD, Palliative Care Physician, Cambridge Health Alliance

C Darrow, MEd, High School Teacher, SSCPS

Nancy B. Finn, President, Communication Resources

Soumya Narayan, MD, Resident, Cambridge Health Alliance

Jack L. Paradise, M.D.

Karry Muzzey

Galina Tan, MD, Primary care physician, Instructor in Medicine, Cambridge Health Alliance, Harvard Medical School

Jessica Zeidman, MD, Primary Care Program Director, Massachusetts General Hospital

Harry Margolis

Maya Margolis

Seth Tobolsky, M.D., Resident Physician, Massachusetts General Hospital

Jordana Laks, Addiction Medicine Fellow, Boston Medical Center

Desiree Hartman, Program Coordinator, Boston Medical Center

Sue Tamber Housman

Anna Baker, MPH, Executive Director, Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility

Mirret El-Hagrassy, MD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Spaulding Neuromodulation Center, Harvard Medical School

Austin Wertheimer, MD, Planning Committee, Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility

Tatjana Kobb, MD, Adjunct Professor, Northeastern University

Olivia Lanna MD MA, President, Hingham Medical Care Inc.

Jana Jarolimova, MD MPH, Infectious Diseases Physician, Massachusetts General Hospital

T Stephen Jones, MD, MPH, Retired Public Health Physician with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Martha Ellen Katz, MD, Instructor in Medicine, HMS, Harvard Medical School

Peter Moyer, MD, MPH, Physicians for Social Responsibility

Charlen Saulnier FNP-BC, PCP/NP, Cambridge Health Alliance

Andee Krasner, MPH, Public Health Consultant

Avlot Quessa, Sr. Director, Multicultural Affairs and Patient Services, Cambridge Health Alliance

Rand Wilson, Organizer, SEIU Local 888

Sarah Koolsbergen

Davidson Hamer, MD, Professor of Global Health and Medicine, Boston University

Yannick Monteiro, Business and Design Associate, The Possible Project

Natalia Linos, ScD, Executive Director , FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard

Yannick Monteiro, Business and Design Associate, The Possible Project

Robert N. Husson, MD,

Maite Diez, Educator, Hull Village Association

Lisa Kim, Center for Mindfulness and Compassion, Cambridge Health Alliance