Statement Re Detained Asylum Seekers at the Port Isabel Detention Center, Texas We are writing to express our grave concern about the ongoing detention of numerous asylum seekers in the ICE Port Isabel Detention Center, Los Fresnos, Texas. The great majority of these persons have never committed a crime. Moreover, they have families with legal status here in the United States who are eager to take them in while their immigration cases are processed. Prior to this administration, release of these migrants to their families would have been routine. These asylum seekers are now in danger of contracting the Corona Virus, or Covid-19, and suffering severe illness and even death. They must be released to family and friends forthwith. Keeping them in long term, unjustified detention under these conditions is the moral equivalent of locking them into a burning building. Hygienic conditions and medical care at this facility are shocking even during the best of times. The conditions are now unconscionable. The asylum seekers do not receive soap, only small packets of shampoo in the morning. Soap they must purchase on their own through the commissary if they can. The guards, arriving from their homes, walk in and out of the dormitories without gloves or masks, and go from one dorm to the other in this manner throughout the day. There are 70 men to a dormitory so social distancing is impossible. The men also eat in their dorms, with food workers bringing in the food trays, with gloved hands but no masks. There are four toilet bowls in each dorm, standing out in the open without any screens. These are cleaned in the morning and evening, but no cleaning materials are available in between. These conditions fly in the face of the precautions we are all required to respect. Many of the detainees have serious health problems. It is a matter of time until the virus strikes, and the results will be devastating. We know that the detainees have brought these concerns to the facility’s officers, but to no avail. The detainees also initiated a hunger strike on Monday, March 30, 2020. We understand that there is a grave risk of retaliation and intimidation should it continue. We demand that all migrants in the Port Isabel Detention Center be immediately released to their friends and family unless they have a criminal record clearly indicating a danger to society. Contacts: Madeleine Sandefur Jennifer Harbury ANGRY TIAS AND ABUELAS

Health care and other essential service workers have become sick and some may die over the lack of preparedness, even though these masks were changing hands and flying back and forth between countries since January of 2020

We are working to expand access to free menstrual products (pads, tampons, liners, etc.) for all students who need them, including trans and non-binary students. We plan to work with on-campus resources to allow community members (students and faculty) free access to these necessities. Menstrual product access is a basic necessity for more than half of our student body. Currently, free menstrual products are provided in the Student Health Services building where you can only take two at a time, but nowhere else on our campus. Our campus lacks menstrual product dispensers in all bathrooms, therefore the only place to access these essential products is in the Student Health Services building. This does not assist anyone in need of these products during an emergency. Expanded access to these products is necessary to ensure the safety of students and faculty because this is an issue of hygiene.

Tens of thousands, perhaps millions, will die if this petition is not answered positively.

Without a working healthcare system, entire communities will collapse -- healthcare workers, patients and their families will be affected. Not that one can put a monetary value on human lives, but our economy will never recover from a healthcare collapse.

UBER and Lyft drivers are on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic, shuttling people back and forth who still need to go to work and get groceries. But UBER and Lyft have yet to extend protections their drivers can actually take, including sick days and paid leave. And these companies aren’t providing the drivers who do want to keep working with adequate sanitary supplies. That means drivers might feel forced to work when they feel ill, or when their family members are sick and need care. These drivers are taking care of us during this pandemic, and the companies they work for need to take care of them by providing critical benefits that protect them, their families, passengers, and communities.

Big Pharma companies are already trying to profit from drugs to treat or prevent coronavirus infection -- and we need your help to stop them. Last week Gilead Sciences was caught attempting to get exclusive rights to one drug that has shown promise in treating covid-19. Under intense public pressure they backed off, but they and other Pharma companies still have the ability to raise the price high and gouge everyone for desperately needed medicine. Under a federal law known as Section 1498, the government can override a patent at any time as long as the company receives "reasonable compensation." This gives the government critical leverage to negotiate lower prices. And the government could even start producing lifesaving treatments itself under the Defense Production Act. Will you help use that leverage to save lives and stop Big Pharma from gouging people?

Every single human being is stressed now with everything that has evolved as a direct result of this crisis. Pharmaceutical drugs have proven to wreak havoc around the world causing many deaths. while cannabis is a safer alternative for many and has never killed anyone. Re-legalize cannabis NOW, it is the only humane thing to do at this point.

The coronavirus is a pandemic emergency and should be considered a national emergency in the United States. The piecemeal attempts to control the spread by local or scattered state mandates is not effective. The whole nation must be involved. The coronavirus does not respect borders. If the national government refuses to make the guidelines a national mandate, we need to pressure the state governors into doing that for it. We are all in this together.

As of March 31, 2020, there are 100 reported cases of COVID-19 in Lubbock. Yesterday there were 41 cases. Depending on the level of testing, there will be many more reported cases by the end of the week, probably approaching 200 and counting. This number is arrived at by taking the number of new cases since yesterday 36, and adding it for each day until Saturday. This is a simplistic estimate that will certainly underestimate the true number, since this assumes that the growth won't increase each day but instead remain constant. This is an underestimate since, in exponential growth, the rates increase depending on the previous rate (so the growth rates are not constant). Further, the people who are being tested are those who have the most severe symptoms, leading to the reported cases underestimating the true cases. Many asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic cases of COVID-19 have not yet been tested. This implies that the growth rate, which depends on reported cases, is an underestimate of the true growth rate, so COVID-19 is spreading more rapidly in Lubbock than we currently understand. Lubbock hospitals are exemplary and have substantial resources prepared to handle this pandemic, however, the growth rate is larger than we hope and may soon inundate the hospitals. Whether the hospitals can handle a large number of cases or not, it is still a good decision to protect their resources available to fight the virus. This is best done as a community by sheltering in place for a longer period of time, so as to reduce the number of cases the hospitals need to care for. This preserves the resources needed to safely care for the patients as well as the doctors and nurses working on the front lines. It is a difficult decision to order a shelter-in-place for a longer period of time when there is hope that such an order isn't needed, since it could appear to be a greater measure than what is necessary. However, by not ordering a shelter-in-place for a long enough time, the virus will spread beyond control so that other actions cannot rectify the situation. The longer the order is extended, the better. This is an opportunity for Lubbock to emerge as a leader in West Texas on how to combat COVID-19, and protect the wonderful people and healthcare workers in the city.

Because it is spreading the Covid 19 virus. It is dangerous. Over 500 health care workers have tested positive.

Banning of Partners/Significant Others/Family Members/Visitors in Hospital Labor and Delivery Units in the Tri-State Area Protect our mothers and our newborns. Protect our front-line healthcare workers, doctors and nurses. Ban all visitors now! 784, 716 infected worldwide, 163,807 cases in the United States, 67,384 confirmed in New York and 16,636 confirmed in New Jersey, 37,639 fatalities worldwide - we need to flatten the curve now! This past week, New Jersey ordered its citizens to stay home and closed all non-essential businesses in order to slow the spread of COVID-19. New York has mandated the policy of “stay home, stop the spread, save lives.” But our nurses and doctors face that spread every day, and we must do what we can to protect them. New Jersey and New York must prohibit visitors, including partners and family members, on all maternity units in the state. According to CNN, half of infections originate in pre-symptomatic carriers – every person allowed into a hospital increases the risk of spreading COVID-19 to patients and newborns as well as the medical staff caring for them. Two of New York’s largest hospital systems, New York-Presbyterian and Mount Sinai Health System, had barred all visitors from their maternity wards. This ruling was recently reversed. Inconsistent policies are creating confusion in the public, causing people to “hospital shop,” even crossing state lines to deliver their babies with partners present. With the influx of out-of-state patients, New Jersey and New York obstetrics doctors and nurses are faced with unfamiliar patients with unknown medical history. During this COVID-19 pandemic, Labor and Delivery wards’ primary focus must be on the safety of the mother, newborn baby, and staff. As nurses, we understand the pain a partner feels missing the birth of their child, but that pain doesn’t compare to the risk posed to our patients and our medical staff. Having a partner absent at birth creates a more stressful delivery for mothers and staff alike, but it is necessary. Every person in America is making sacrifices in social distancing in order to ensure the future safety and health of our nation. As health care providers, we are at the front line ensuring this safety. Doctors and nurses are at high risk of contracting COVID-19 and must be quarantined if exposed. Therefore we demand that our health and safety, as well as the health and safety of our patients, is taken into consideration. Until testing is available for everyone, we must reduce this risk as much as possible; banning partners in labor and delivery will flatten the curve and save lives. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html Please refer to this hyperlink to show how many people have been infected with unknown origin, how the death toll has risen and how the increase in contact per patient per partner would thus increase exposure risk to all of the people involved. How many people are asymptomatic infected people? Spreading the disease? The USA death total has doubled since Thursday, surpassing 2,500, with NY 1,218 deaths - an increase of 965 since Sunday morning. *Actual numbers provided in opening of petition are from the John Hopkins University Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering as of 22:30 on March 30, 2020. https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html