4/16/2020

My dear Friend & POTUS, DJT,

            How did all of those phone calls go yesterday? I wish I had the time to read the transcript of your press conference, but alas, I have some things to accomplish today that have nothing to do with you or CV, so I have no idea what you might have said about your calls.

            I’m glad that you are speaking with truckers today. I’m sure you saw trucker Todd Spencer’s HELP-MAY DAY-911 plea in his letter to you. Truckers are doing such an important job & they are feeling vulnerable. As I wrote to you in March, 2017, their sedentary, solitary job leads to all kinds of health problems including obesity and diabetes. I’m worried that they are having a hard time finding decent meals & places to wash their hands. Worst of all, should they start feeling sick, the only place they have to recuperate is in their truck.

Please, let’s show our gratitude for the work they do by taking care of them. You can use your procurement power to compel motel owners to let truckers use their empty rooms if they have COVID symptoms. Of course, the drivers will need masks, so they don’t infect the motel owners. Making tests available at all of the truck scales would enable drivers to make sound decisions & prevent them from spreading CV. I know that Sec. of Transportation Elaine Chow has relaxed regulation so food trucks can set up in rest areas. That’s a great start, but I think we need to do more to protect these essential workers.

            I encourage you to take a look at the NYT article about MA’s efforts to get contact tracing up & running. They had 15000 application for 1000 slots as tracers. Having humans do the tracing is superior to having phones do it. They say it’s critical to being able to open things back up. Jim Yong Kim (Dartmouth President, 2009-2012) has had lots of success running tracing programs so I encourage you to be in touch with him.

            HYITL,

            RCA