A seventh grader’s call to action

The coronavirus has been spreading throughout the U.S at a staggering pace, and hospitals can’t keep up, with known shortages of masks, ventilators, and doctors. With cases occurring at unprecedented rates, people may not get the health care they need. Meanwhile, millions of workers are being asked to stay home for fear of spreading coronavirus, many without pay.

But there is a solution: the Defence Production Act gives the president the power to require industries to produce emergency items (like having the fashion industry make masks). This has been done before, during World War 2. President Franklin D. Roosevelt made General Motors (GM) make bombers instead of cars. My great-grandfather, an architect, went from building houses to designing B-24 bombers for GM. Doing this now would get us the health care supplies we desperately need, and give people going without pay the opportunity to work.

President Trump has only partially used this power, by having GM make ventilators, but we need him to do more. He should use his authority for masks and other protective equipment too. Americans — young and old, Republican and Democrat — have to persuade Donald Trump to take action, if we want to help both coronavirus victims and workers.

People usually say write your senators and representatives for political action, but there is an easier yet still effective way. Let’s all tweet President Trump directly about it (with #Reemployamerica). I’m just a 7th grader, but I think my voice can make a difference — and so can yours.

Editor’s note: Shefman is a 7th grader at DSST Byers in Denver. As the son of Colorado’s former Chief Medical Officer Tista Ghosh and lawyer Randy Shefman, he hears a lot at the dinner table about pandemics and legal authority.