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COVID-19: A Presidential EAS Message Is Needed

We are in a national emergency if there ever was one.

The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is to be used to issue warnings to the general public. If you hear state and local tests of the system, they will likely say, "this station in cooperation" which means radio and television stations are not required to carry state and local tests. The only "mandatory tests and actual alerts" they are required to carry are presidential alerts.

I've always argued that on Sept. 11, 2001, there should have been a national EAS message sent by the White House to the American people letting them know America was under attack and we as a nation were responding.

Now, with 145,000 cases of coronavirus surging through the land, we need a national EAS alert to be sent. It would certainly save lives by calling attention to the issue and getting people to change behaviors. Here's what I would have the alert say:

"This is a presidential emergency alert message to the American public. Due to surging cases of the coronavirus in an uncontrolled manner, every man, woman and child is hereby directed to wear a mask when in public. Do not have large family gatherings at Thanksgiving. This will protect the people you love. Your cooperation will save lives." 

The above might finally break through the noise of the day to get people's attention on the crisis facing our nation. What would we have done to prevent 250,000 lives being lost on 9/11? We'll likely be at that number by Thanksgiving. The daily death rate on Wednesday was 1,400.  

Action to protect the public is needed, not election recounts. 

Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.