Feel free to use as much of this drafted communication as you would like, and customize to fit your needs and intended audience.
Dear _________,
Thank you for your service to our city/county/state/district/country. I’m reaching out to you regarding the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on some of my most vulnerable fellow constituents.
Black people are being disproportionately infected with and impacted by COVID-19. Nationwide, they are dying at a rate 2.3 times higher than White people. As of Oct. 3, the virus had claimed at least 40,000 Black lives. Black people account for more than 20% of COVID-19 deaths where race is known.
To address this emergency, I’m requesting that you please do all you can to enact or influence adoption of policies that:
- Reinstate shelter-in-place orders.
- Enact safety plans for each state before they reopen that include resources for personal protective equipment (PPE) for workers.
- Publish COVID-19 data disaggregated by county and race.
- Increase public health model testing, tracing, and treatment, with specific support to communities that are low-income and communities of color.
- Expand Medicaid.
- Provide unemployment support for residents that have lost jobs or cannot work.
In addition, please review the COVID Racial Data Tracker and tell other elected and appointed officials about it. The tracker is a collaboration between the COVID Tracking Project and the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research. This resource offers the most complete and up-to-date race and ethnicity data on COVID-19 that I have seen. It includes the collection, cross-checking, and publishing of COVID-19 data from all states and territories in three main areas: testing, patient outcomes, and racial and ethnic demographic information. Together, these compiled numbers provide the most complete picture available of the pandemic’s effects on the people and communities it strikes.
Thank you for your time and consideration on these matters. Feel free to contact me if I can provide additional clarity on my requests.
Sincerely,
Your Name
Your City and State
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