The coronavirus pandemic is coming to the United States, and it is going to hit seniors and people with disabilities the hardest.

The Trump administration has not instilled confidence through its response thus far, so it is up to us to make our voices heard. It’s not the time to panic―it’s time to prepare.

A pandemic can overwhelm our healthcare system’s capacity, exacerbating the crisis.

At the moment, too much emphasis is being placed on individual responsibility―handwashing instructions, and tricks about not touching your face. That is all important, but we also need a systemic response to increase our capacity for the coming surge in cases needing hospitalization. This graph shows how the same number of cases either will or will not overwhelm our health care system:  

Preparation can help both flatten the curve & lift the line.

Preparing now looks like an additional $142 billion in emergency funding:

• Increase hospital and clinical capacity ― increase capacity with additional beds and equipment BEFORE the existing hospitals fill up. We must use our emergency response mechanisms to mobilize resources and facilities in order to respond to surges in demand.

• Massive investment in nursing home and senior community preparedness— we must face the fact that seniors and people with disabilities are likely to face the brunt of this pandemic and ensure adequate protection of residents of senior facilities and the workers who care for them

• Clear protections for frontline workers — we must have clear standards and sufficient distribution of necessary protective equipment for health care and other workers who are in contact with people who have been exposed or are suffering from the virus as well as the people responsible for cleaning buildings and public facilities

• Paid sick leave — workers impacted by quarantine orders or responsible for caring for children impacted by school closures must receive paid sick leave to alleviate the devastating consequences of lost wages

• Enhanced Unemployment Insurance — we must ensure unemployment insurance benefits are available and sufficient for workers who may lose their jobs from the economic impacts of the epidemic

• Food security — we must expand SNAP, WIC, school lunch and other initiatives and suspend implementation of any regulations that weaken federal food assistance, in order to ensure vulnerable populations do not lose access to food during this epidemic

• Widespread and free coronavirus testing — to control the spread of coronavirus, the administration must ensure that all Americans who need an evaluation are able to access locations for cost-free testing and rapidly increase the unacceptably low daily test processing capacity inside the U.S.

• Treatment for all — patients must be reimbursed for any non-covered coronavirus-related costs, or else the epidemic will be worsened because Americans will fear they cannot afford the costs associated with treatment

• Anti-price gouging protections — we must ensure that Americans are protected from price gouging of medical and non-medical essentials during this emergency