Bipartisan 'Reopen' Coalition Plan Would Paralyze America, States the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS)

TUCSON, Ariz., April 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A bipartisan coalition mostly made up of former government officials is promoting a $46 billion plan to "reopen the economy." In a letter sent to congressional leaders, the coalition wrote that the key is to "test, trace, and self-isolate." The plan calls for hiring 180,000 new contact tracers, "until a vaccine for COVID-19 is on the market." The group recommends that "primary care providers become a referral source for testing and contact tracing."

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) stated that the plan would have the opposite of the purported effect of getting Americans back to work quickly. It proposes that all contacts of an infected person "voluntarily self-isolate for 14 days." This could disable a huge part of the workforce, AAPS pointed out, because the virus has spread so widely by now.

"An economy is not built on contact tracers, but on people who produce food, energy, and useful goods and services," AAPS stated.

AAPS contested the idea that this would "stabilize our healthcare system."

"Patients are delaying appointments for needed care out of fear of COVID-19," AAPS states. "Will they come to an office that is a testing center for infected persons, where they might get put into a government data base to enforce what amounts to a house arrest? This would spell the end of an already threatened patient-physician relationship."

"A safe and effective vaccine may never be on the market," AAPS notes. "We need common-sense precautions to protect the vulnerable, and individualized physician care to improve health, strengthen immunity, and provide the best available treatment to the sick."

"The proposed 'containment infrastructure' is a debt-financed confinement system that will paralyze, not stimulate, innovation and enterprise. The virus escaped potential containment months ago," AAPS concludes.

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) has represented physicians of all specialties since 1943. Its motto is omnia pro aegroto?meaning "everything for the patient."

SOURCE Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS)