In Your Opinion: Kramer: Stay Home!

By Mayor Phil Kramer.

There are a lot of comments objecting to closing the parks. I know it’s a hard thing to do. It’s hard to stay inside as it gets nicer. But yesterday I was given 64 reasons why the park should be closed. 64 reasons ranging in age from 19 to 97. I learned last night that today the number of people who died in Franklin will increase by 3. That’s 3 more reasons. We need to stop this. NOW.

I sit at work listening to overhead announcements calling for the respiratory team. That’s another person going on a ventilator. Somerset Hospital is full and is on critical care divert. That means they are accepting no more critical care patients. And we are not at peak. It’s still getting worse.

Doctors and nurses who haven’t practiced in 5 years are being called in. Anyone with a medical degree from any country on earth can practice medicine in NJ without any further testing. Maybe if you have a non-Covid19 emergency you’ll be taken care of by one of them so your regular ER doctor can treat COVID19 patients.

Doctors and Nurses are being asked to work in unfamiliar specialties to keep the system from collapsing. They are staying in hotels at night, so they don’t infect their families. Every day I get home from the hospital I go through a half hour ritual of Cloroxing my wallet, glasses, keys etc. and then stripping off my scrubs before I get into the house. Some of my friends are being exposed to COVID19 patients already. I completely expect some of them will die in service to you.

Closing parks will save lives. Maybe one of my friends, maybe my wife’s, maybe mine, maybe yours.

I’m sorry for your suffering but some are suffering more in service to you. We need to do all we can to help them.

PLEASE STAY HOME

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