Bipartisan Assembly of Governors Support Call to Action to Defeat COVID-19

December 10, 2020 – Today, a bipartisan assembly of Governors representing 1 in 3 Americans issued support for a Call to Action to Defeat COVID-19 and Promote National Recovery and Renewal, developed and released by the COVID Collaborative, which includes the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. 
 
The Call to Action addresses the five key pillars of an effective response to the pandemic: testing, contract tracing, public health and social measures, vaccines and treatments, and common measures of success. Across these pillars, it emphasizes the need for state and local leaders to engage with vulnerable communities to ensure that their efforts to defeat the virus are both equitable and effective. The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security provided led the development of the contact tracing and common indicators of success pillars with other experts in the field.

The Call to Action was developed by the COVID Collaborative, a national assembly that has brought together leading experts and institutions across health, education, and the economy to develop consensus best practices to support state and local leaders in their efforts to end the pandemic.

“What we need badly right now is a consistent, effective planning across the country.  When the pandemic worsens in one state, it puts other states at high risk.  America's governors can work together to set a better path to controlling this virus.  This new Call to Action is exactly that - a common set of principles and actions that all states can take that will strengthen the US response.  Governors deserve a great deal of credit for coming together on this," says Dr. Tom Inglesby, Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

In addition to the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, the COVID Collaborative includes expertise from both Republican and Democratic Administrations at the federal, state and local levels, including former Governors, FDA Commissioners, CDC Directors and U.S. Surgeons General; former U.S. Secretaries of Education, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services; leading public health experts, scientists, researchers and institutions; business leaders, the Business Roundtable, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and National Association of Manufacturers; leaders of the NAACP, UnidosUS, Asian-American and Pacific Islander American Health Forum, and the National Congress of American Indians; major philanthropies including the Skoll Foundation, The Allstate Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, and Walton Family Foundation; and associations representing those on the front lines, from the American Public Health Association and Association of State and Territorial Health Officials to the Council of Chief State School Officers and the Council of the Great City Schools.

“It is so important that we take collective and coordinated action to control SARS-CoV-2 transmission, including by agreeing on common metrics and thresholds for action and by better resourcing public health agencies and contact tracing programs. Governors have the heavy burden of hugely consequential decisions about what measures to take to slow the spread, but I am confident that if leaders come together, especially now, we can save many lives and livelihoods by getting this pandemic under better control,” explains Crystal Watson, DrPH, Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.