Hi there. It's Scott Walker (no, not that Scott Walker). I'm a doctor in rural Wisconsin.

At the clinic where I work, we are fully unable to test patients for the coronavirus. We are on the waiting list for a test machine but there are still massive shortages, and outbreak hotspots are the priority. There is no estimate of when or if we will get a machine.

Across the country, governors are starting to relax the stay-at-home orders and send people back to work. Without enough testing, this could be catastrophic. Since President Trump won’t do it on his own, Congress needs to step in and insist that the government make -- or contract to make -- the critical testing and other supplies that are severely needed across the country.

The next round of coronavirus relief is being debated right now in Congress, and Elizabeth Warren just announced a new bill today that would require the government to publicly manufacture the tests, PPE, and drugs that are in shortage.

Will you join me in supporting Elizabeth Warren's ground-breaking new “COVID-19 Emergency Manufacturing Act of 2020” and call on all members of Congress to support public manufacture of live-saving supplies in the midst of the pandemic? Click here to add your name to the petition.

If the government had ramped up its response earlier, there might be enough test equipment to go around, and cities like mine could get test machines and supplies before we become a hotspot, too.

But instead, Trump ignored repeated, urgent warnings in his intelligence briefings about the coronavirus in January and February. Instead of making emergency preparations, he downplayed the threat, used it to make political attacks, squandered valuable time, and allowed the virus to spread throughout the country unchecked.

Then, he went on to rely on the private sector to produce what we need. That has not worked. It is not a sufficient response to simply "let the markets decide" when lives depend on ramping up the production of key medical supplies immediately -- whether doing so is profitable or not.

My patients cannot afford to wait another day for these tests.

Our government has the ability to massively scale up the production of testing equipment and other vital supplies. We already do this by contracting to make drugs essential for our national security that the private market won’t provide on its own. We need this to happen to meet our needs now and in the future when the virus returns -- and we need it to happen so that as people start to go back to work, we can keep everyone as safe as possible.

Add your name: All members of Congress should support public manufacture of live-saving supplies in the midst of the pandemic.

Together,

-- Scott Walker, MD

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