Stay Home - Save Lives

Stay Home - Save Lives (propaganda)
Illustration to the open letter showing a children's playground with a police tape saying "do not cross".
Type	file of unspecified type
Publication date	15 March 2020
Author(s)	•  Andy Slavitt •  Bill Frist •  Asaf Bitton •  Lanhee J. Chen •  Ezekiel Emanuel •  Atul Gawande •  Sandra Hernandez •  Bob Kocher •  Vivek Murthy •  Michael Osterholm •  DJ Patil •  Jennifer Peña •  Jordan Shlain •  Eric Topol •  Leana Wen •  Michelle A. Williams
Subjects	lockdown,  mass testing
March 2020 open letter aimed at persuading the population that "COVID-19 is spreading. "There is no chance they self-assembled and is it very likely they were readied for priming the population in this manner via various pandemic preparedness efforts and training long before the campaign launched".

Stay Home, save lives was an open letter from more than 20 healthcare professionals, published in USA Today on March 15, 2020, aimed at persuading the population that "COVID-19 is spreading, and you won’t know you’re infected until you’ve already infected others." It came a day before the White House Coronavirus Task Force's slogan of "15 Days to Slow the Spread".

Main points

Similar messaging appeared in other countries as well, urging citizens to Stay Home, Save Lives for reasons mirroring those given in the U.S.

The letter, which was directed to everyday Americans, and state and local leaders, pushed a number of novel concepts, including "asymptomatic spread", lockdowns, mass "testing" and closing the hospitals to save the hospitals:

• You won’t know you're infected until you’ve already infected others.
• STAY AT HOME as much as possible. It may be in your community now or it may be soon. Until you hear otherwise from health care officials, even if you have no symptoms.
• Temporarily close bars and restaurants
• Consider temporary suspension of all commercial air and rail travel.
• Make rapid expansion of COVID-19 testing a top priority.
• Prepare large spaces (stadiums, hotels) to become quarantine residences, as needed.
• Stop all elective surgical and medical procedures now.

Criticism

Jessica Hockett pointed out that "The signatories had zero authority to direct or advise citizens, state/local leaders, & healthcare workers. There is no chance they self-assembled and is it very likely they were readied for priming the population in this manner via various pandemic preparedness efforts and training long before the campaign launched."

Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.