Indian-American physicians body calls for radical national measures to fight COVID-19

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The American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, AAPI, is urging the Trump administration to move more radically to shut down government and ensure widespreaad quarantine.

“As concerned physicians witnessing the growing COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on our society, healthcare system and economy, we, members of American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI), the largest ethnic Medical Association in the United States, urge the Federal, State and Local Governments and policy makers to advocate for more immediate and severe action to prevent the crisis from becoming unmanageable,” Dr. Suresh Reddy, president of AAPI said in a statement released March 19, 2020.

Noting that several meetings with leaders of AAPI, which according to the organization’s estimate, represents “nearly 100,000 physicians of Indian Origin in the United States, serving every seventh patient across the United States,” the organization urged that authorities across the nation, “Implement and enforce a total lockdown of the nation, social distancing, and enforce self-quarantine of the total population, as has been practiced in other countries in order to flatten the infection curve,” Dr. Deeptha Nedunchezian, chair of AAPI’s COVID-19 Response Task Force, is quoted saying in the press release.

Other top executives and board members of AAPI reiterated the call including Dr. Seema Arora, chair of the Board of Trustees; Dr. Lokesh Edara, co-chair of AAPI’s COVID-19 Response Task Force; Dr. Arunachellum Einstein, member of the AAPI’s COVID-19 Response Task Force: Dr. Sudhakar Jonnalagadda, president-elect of AAPI; Dr. Anupama Gotimukula, vice president, AAPI; Dr. Raj Bhayani, treasurer of AAPI; Dr. Ravi Kolli, secretary of AAPI; and Dr. Soumya Reddy Neravetla, vice president of the young physicians group in AAPI.

The lauded the expansion of telemedicine, the relaxation of HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) rules for telemedicine purposes and called for all insurance companies and government systems to reimburse for services provided by medical professionals in these critical times.

For fellow healthcare workers, it called for providing all protective equipment needed to treat patients and also recommended CDC and WHO directives across the United States in public and private places such as airports, offices, grocery stores, etc, be followed diligently.