JOINT LETTER - People Power United supports S.1489 - National Task Force on the COVID-19 Pandemic Act

🗽A well informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 19, 2023

People Power United joins Coalition supporting S.1489 - National Task Force on the COVID-19 Pandemic Act. Our group signed on to a joint letter in support of the creation of a task force on the Covid-19 pandemic. See below for the content of that letter.

Open Letter to the 118th Congress in support of S.1489 - National Task Force on the COVID-19 Pandemic Act

Dear Honorable Members of the U.S. 118th Congress,

We write to express our solidarity with Covid grievers and urge you to pass S.1489 - National Task Force on the COVID-19 Pandemic Act. The legislation would establish a Task Force to investigate the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and make policy recommendations to improve the United States’ national security and preparedness for future pandemics and other major disasters. This critical work cannot wait.

The creation of a national Task Force is the first step towards accountability for the pain and suffering endured by millions of people bereaved, disabled, or irrevocably harmed by the pandemic. This comprehensive and permanent public record of what happened and why will formally recognize the 1.2 million people who died in the U.S., hold willfully negligent leaders accountable, and protect us from similar fallout during future disasters.

Unbiased reviews of disaster response and recovery are a tried-and-true tool for safeguarding our country. Congress has approved 170 such reviews since 1989, including the 9/11 Commission and the post-Katrina National Commission on Children and Disasters. That’s why Marked By Covid, the pandemic justice and remembrance movement led by Covid grievers, has been calling for a Task Force since July 2020.

With the end of the federal COVID-19 emergency, we are at a critical decision point: will we remember or forget? Without a National Task Force to establish a collective memory, our country will be on a path towards increasingly destructive yet preventable disasters. We urge you to pass the National Task Force on the COVID-19 Pandemic Act as soon as possible.

Signed,

Marked By Covid

Center for Popular Democracy

UCSF Department of Emergency Medicine

COVID-19 Longhaulers Advocacy Project

COVID Collaborative

Pandemic Action Network

Oxfam America

End Well

Avaaz

Long Covid Families

Children's Collaborative for Healing & Support New Jersey Public Health Association

Rhode Island Committee on Occupational Safety & Health COVID Survivors for Change

Latinx Task Force

ME Action

Long Covid Justice

Strategies for High Impact

Patient-Led Research Collaborative

USPIRG

National Prevention Science Coalition to Improve Lives Mainers for Accountable Leadership

R2H: Right to Health Action

Mighty Earth

Solve M.E.

Dysautonomia International

Long COVID Alliance

Poder Latinx

GRACE

Rami’s Heart

People’s Action

Liberation in a Generation

Young Widows and Widowers of COVID Pandemic of Love

Pandemic Patients

Micronesian Islander Community

People Power United

Movement Tech Help Desk

Zero Breast Cancer

Stop Bullying Coalition

New Disabled South

Project N95, Inc

We Said Enough

National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (COSH)

MassCOSH

United We Dream

1. Michael Siegel, MD, MPH, Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine

2. Olivia Troye, Former Homeland Security & Covid Task Force Advisor to the Vice President of the U.S, Mike Pence

3. Christine Keeves, MPH Co-founder Marked By Covid

4. Nora Kenworthy, Associate Professor of Nursing and Health Studies

5. William J. Walsh, MD Medical Director, Weber Recovery Center

6. Kenneth D. Rosenberg, MD, MPH, Oregon Health Authority (retired)

7. Karyn Pomerantz

8. Ellen Mendlow, TwoMinds Comms--Strategist & Editor

9. Kris Jayme Matas

10. Karen McPhail-Bell, PhD

11. Dr. Tamara Lea Spira, PhD, co-founder of Protect Their Future

12. Ligia F

13. Juliana E. Morris, MD, EdM, Harvard Medical School

14. Caro Granner

15. Sarah Horsley, BPS Families for COVID Safety (Boston, MA)

16. Sarah Senk, PhD, CSU Maritime

17. Christine Pontus RN

18. Anne Miller

19. Tara C Smith PhD, epidemiologist

20. Jennie Spector, LCSW

21. Marilyn Levi-Baumgarten MLB Health LLC

22. Jhumka Gupta, ScD, MPH—George Mason University College of Public Health 23. Antonia Lewis, MPH - economic and social impact from COVID

24. Jesse Campagna, MPH - Social, Behavioral, and Environmental Epidemiology 25. Gillian Grant, MPH

26. Priscilla Grim

27. Alana Saltz, disability rights activist

28. Barbara Malmet

29. Dorothy Wigmore, MS, MFA

30. Kayla Wilburn

31. Wendy Shaffer MLA

32. Lindsey Thatcher, MPH

33. Estefania Martinez, MPH- George Washington University

34. Marissa Brash, DrPH, EdD, MPH, CPH - Azusa Pacific University

35. Robin Kalish MD MPH

36. Bridgette Jones Brokevitch (aka the Public Health Heaux)

37. Emily Boundaone MSN RN CCRN

38. Katherine Kirkland, DrPH, MPH (retired)

39. Alex Wilson- Public Health and Health Equity Specialist

40. Karyn Pomerantz, MPH MLS (retired), Public Health Awakened, World Health Network, Radical Elders

41. Leika Suzumura, RD, MPH - Nourishian for Life

42. Debra Pelto, MPH, PhD, Fundamental Health Research

43. Andrea Lowe, MPH, CPH - Social Impact Studio Consulting LLC

44. Kenneth D. Chiu

45. Frances Gilmore, MIH

46. Craig Slatin, Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Public Health, University of Massachusetts Lowell 47. Maggie Hawkins, MPH, CHES

48. Regina LaRocque, MD MPH - Harvard Medical School

49. Dara Baldwin

50. Stacy Lyn Burnett

51. Ogie Strogatz, MSPH

52. Toni Van Pely

53. Stephanie Brancaforte, Rinascimento Green

54. Alan Meyers, MD,MPH, Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

55. Jessie Milne, MPH, CCRP

56. Lauren Reed

57. Sarah Gareau, DrPH - University of South Carolina

58. Sarah Mart, MS, MPH - public health researcher and program manager; spouse, and mom 59. Danielle Zemmel, MPH

60. Kayla Estes-Romero, MPH and MSW graduate student at the University of Illinois at Chicago 61. Kelley Baumann

62. Maya Maxym, MD, PhD, FAAP

63. James Schultz Infectious Disease Response Trainer

64. Michelle Ko, MD, PhD

65. Anna Efstate

66. Marjorie Kersten, MPH - University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health 67. Kathleen O'Connell, UIC MPH Candidate

68. Monique Fitzgerald

69. Simone Meltesen

70. Gregory Verzosa, BS, BSN pending

71. Catherine Thomsen, MPH, Zero Breast Cancer

72. Reana Thomas, MPH

73. Julia Koehler, MD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School 74. Marcus Cheatham, Retired Health Officer

75. Dara Baldwin - Activist, Scholar

76. Dominique Heinke, ScD Epidemiology

To join these efforts you can send a letter»» https://actionnetwork.org/letters/mbc_taskforce23