Not everyone can self-isolate. People live with older relatives, spouses & roommates. Sending sick people home to infect others is wrong: it amplifies inequality, spreads the virus, and delays our return to normal life. We must offer everyone a safe place to isolate; repurposed dormitories and empty hotel rooms are the key.
These institutions have announced plans to make their facilities and/or dormitories available for hospital beds, healthcare worker housing, or the homeless:
- Tufts University
- Middlebury College
- Columbia University
- New York University
- University of Virginia
- Yale University
- The University of New Haven
- George Washington University
- Post University
- Olivet Nazarene
- Sacred Heart
- Vanderbilt
- Fordham University
- University of Southern Maine
- Suffolk University
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The places that slowed the spread of Covid-19 made two efforts the United States is not making: testing everyone and offering quarantine centers. In Wuhan, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, they didn’t just tell people to self-quarantine in their own houses; they provided places for at-risk people to live temporarily.
Clearly, we need more testing. But to flatten the curve and save lives, we need to ensure that those who are sick or work in high-risk jobs, and can't afford to self-isolate have places to quarantine. Experts, reports, data, and more show that by offering a place for just 1 person to quarantine, we can save hundreds of lives.
Chinese authorities have now say they erred in telling people who are sick to quarantine at home, as data has shown that most of the transmission of covid-19 is happening in the house where more than 1 person lives.
This disease will likely hit our low-income community, essential workers, and homeless the hardest. About 20% of people live in multi-generational homes. And, low-income often must live with at least one other person. Minorities and African Americans in particular have high incidences of heart disease and other pre-existing conditions. Given this perfect storm of deadly factors for this part of the population, it is simply immoral to not offer spaces that are available for self-quarantining.
Right now, colleges and universities have sent their students home and their dormitories lay dormant. Hotels are experiencing an incredibly low volume, so low that hotels are illuminating their empty rooms into the shapes of hearts to thank healthcare workers. That's a good gesture, but it's time to actually take a load off of our medical system by offering those empty room to anyone who needs them. Some schools and hotels have already stepped up to do this. In Italy, people are moving into 3000 rooms being made available by 15 hotels as we speak. They're leading the way so that others may join them before it's too late.
Some of those beds may come from requisitioned hotels. And many of those beds should come from universities and colleges across the country proactively offering space for frontline workers and people in non-critical conditions to shelter separately from non-infected people.
- Start with the colleges or universities you attended.
- Didn't go to college? Focus on local colleges.
- On Twitter use this tweet & @ mention the official account and president of the college or university.
- Find their Facebook page and copy/paste (or adapt) this question.
- On Instagram, share this image
If you're calling them on the phone, call the main number, ask for the President's office. For Twitter, click here and @ mention the official account and president of the college or university. On Facebook, find their page and post the following question.
Is your institution (or institution name here) doing its part to #FlattenTheCurve by making dorm rooms & facilities available to support healthcare workers & vulnerable populations? If not, why not? #HousePeopleNow HousePeopleNow.com
Ask them: Are you doing your part to help our community #FlattenTheCurve by making rooms available for healthcare workers & vulnerable populations? #HousePeopleNow HousePeopleNow.com
First, focus on these hotel chains. Then call local hotels.
- Marriott International. Twitter / Facebook
- Hilton Worldwide. Twitter / Facebook
- Best Western. Twitter / Facebook
- Hyatt Hotels Corporation. Twitter / Facebook
- Extended Stay America. Twitter / Facebook
Send this appeal to fellow classmates via email, group chats, or alumni mailing lists:
There's a new campaign to get colleges and universities to open up their dorms and facilities to health care workers and vulnerable populations to help flatten the curve and stop the spread of COVID-19. I really think we should try to get our alma mater to do this. Can you join me in contacting them? If you'd like to sign on to a letter I can send it. There's more info about the campaign here: HousePeopleNow.com
(Make sharing images)