We are at an important and pivotal moment in our fight against COVID-19. Despite the truly heroic efforts of public officials and health care workers, the disease continues to ravage our neighborhoods, throttle the economy, disrupt schools and overload hospitals. Cruelly, the impact has fallen disproportionately on our Hispanic and Black communities.
What can be done? About a month ago, a broad coalition of civic, philanthropic and business leaders came together to try to find an answer. We believed the problem was bigger than any single sector could handle on its own, so we joined forces to look for ways to maximize the incredible resources Dallas has to offer in order to supplement the existing efforts of our public leaders.
Our shared mission was to ensure that citizens and leaders have the information that they need to set a path toward a new normal, one that allows businesses and schools to reopen safely, lets people get on with their lives with the appropriate precautions, and eases the strain on our overburdened hospitals.
Without question, the most effective way to slow the spread of the virus is to follow the by now familiar guidelines: Stay at home if you can, wear a mask if you can’t, maintain a safe distance from others, and avoid large crowds. But these steps only take us so far.
We started our work by making an objective assessment of exactly where we stand in the fight against the virus. To that end, we engaged the consulting firm McKinsey and Co. and coordinated closely with county and city health representatives Dr. Philip Huang and Dr. Kelvin Baggett.
What we found was sobering. Positive cases in Dallas had doubled over the past 21 days. Hospitalizations and the number of COVID-19 related deaths during the same period were up nearly 50%.
The virus is winning. Dallas, we can do better.
One key data point got our attention: The average rate of positive tests during the past seven days was around 18%. If we hope to contain the spread of the virus, our goal should be 5% or even lower.
As we looked deeper, it became clear that any solution had to involve rethinking our approach to testing. Data suggest that we aren’t testing as frequently as we should, testing facilities are not equitably distributed throughout our city, and it’s taking too long for test results to come back. On top of that, we’re mainly testing a narrow demographic.
If we want to turn the tide on the virus and get a handle on the spread, we need to broaden those testing parameters. Specifically, we need to be able to include both people with and without symptoms, who may unknowingly spread the virus to friends, loved ones and total strangers. Plain and simple: Anyone who wants or needs a test should be able to get a test in a timely manner with timely results.
Our focus has been on developing short-term strategy recommendations that are simple and achievable in order to buy time while scientists learn more about how to stop this insidious virus.
First, we need to massively expand the availability and accessibility of testing. We should aim to consistently increase the amount of testing we do every day and ensure that it is more equitably distributed. We also should expand mobile sites and create flexible access for our residents. The county and city working together are logical choices to fund this effort.
At the same time, testing can only be effective if we ramp up lab capacity to assure a more timely return of test results. Fortunately, we have a world-class health care system and medical school in Dallas. Given their unique talents and capabilities, we believe this is well within our reach with a collaborative effort between the state, businesses and the philanthropic community.
Along those lines, we also urge collaboration of federal, state, county and city resources to fund an immediate expansion of broader lab capacity as well as mobile testing capacity through our health care partners.
Finally, as the schools work toward a safe and responsible way to reopen and stay open using screening and other protective measures, we also want to ensure they have access to ample and effective testing capacity. We recommend hiring additional vendors capable of delivering testing at sufficient scale if necessary at the time schools open.
We recognize that all political subdivision budgets are under strain because of the pandemic. And we know some will argue that such a plan is too expensive to implement now. We disagree. As the pandemic continues to rage, it is too expensive not to take strong, decisive action now. Because if we do, Dallas will see more businesses stabilize, fewer residents will lose their jobs, and more children can concentrate on learning in a safe environment. As a community rallying together, we take care of each other. We must learn to live with the virus for many months to come.
Dallas has always been a city that dreams big and brings dreams to life. Testing is one form of defense. In a pandemic with no vaccine, you are defending your health. We can do this, Dallas.
Dr. Kelvin A. Baggett, Dallas COVID-19 health and health care access czar
Richie Butler, senior pastor of St. Luke Community UMC
Rob Kaplan, president of the Dallas Federal Reserve
Tom Luce, chairman of Texas 2036
Alfreda B. Norman, board chair of the Communities Foundation of Texas
Nicole Small, chief executive of Lyda Hill Philanthropies
Miguel Solis, Dallas ISD trustee
John Stephens, chief financial officer of AT&T
They wrote this column for The Dallas Morning News.