The Public and Our Employees Come First

Join Business Owners in Telling Governor Lee that GOOD business starts with protecting the health and safety of their customers and employees.

Dear Governor Lee:

Good business starts with protecting the health and safety of our customers, employees, and the public.

Contradictory guidance from the state government that undermines our cities and health experts only confuse the public and make it harder on us and the economy -- and we won't jeopardize the lives of the public or our employees.

To safely reopen we need to see our state and federal policymakers address the health crisis and the recommendation of Tennessee health experts including first expanding:

  1. a robust contact tracing program, with public data, so that we know that people who came in contact with COVID are isolating and not in our stores or offices.
  2. expanded, regular and rapid testing for everyone, so that we can send our employees for a free test and fast results if they’re showing symptoms (because a test today only shows whether you are infected TODAY, and that does nothing to determine whether someone gets infected tomorrow). Only regular, routine testing for EVERY citizen will address this.
  3. industry-specific guidance for reopening, informed by health experts, instead of generic bullet points

The economic crisis cannot be solved until state and federal policymakers first address the health crisis that started it.

Until the state and the federal government have adequately addressed the health crisis, we will not put the public, or our employees at risk of a disease for which there is no cure, no treatment, and no defense.

Add Your Organization

Health experts have said,

"Non-essential employers should not force members of the public or employees to come together, and the public should stay a apart from each other until Gov. Lee and our federal government leaders have ensured:

  1. rapid contact tracing and isolation of cases that breaks chains of transmission when they are discovered. (because, as long as it takes days or weeks to track down and quarantine infected people, it is too soon to reopen safely).

  2. regular, routine, and rapid testing (because a test today only shows whether you are infected TODAY, and that does nothing to determine whether you get infected tomorrow at work).  Only regular, routine testing for EVERY citizen will solve this problem.

  3. Adequate protection for first responders and health care workers from infection (because as we become infected and quarantined, there are fewer health care workers to save lives in our communities and right now too many are lacking adequate supplies.)