Secretary Crouch:
First, we would like to thank you for your dedication to the people of West Virginia during this unprecedented pandemic. From the very beginning, your guidance has been appreciated, and your abilities to communicate to us have been impressive.
But Secretary, the mass testing for COVID-19 should have been free for West Virginians since Day 1.
It is a frightening thought to think how many of the state’s citizens were infected but did not have the $130 to get tested because they lack health insurance. Instead, they still went to work because they had to, and they just suffered at home not knowing what the outcome might be. It is also scary to contemplate how many of these such folks spread the coronavirus to their co-workers, their children, their parents, and to their grandmothers and grandfathers.
You know West Virginia well, Secretary Crouch, so you realize the state is in the top 5 in the country with a poverty rate nearing 20 percent. That means a fifth of Mountain State residents earn less $25,000 (for a family or four), or less than $15,000 as an individual. If they do earn over those poverty levels, their employment most likely does not include proper pay or health benefits.
It is true, sir, the current case numbers have been fueled by people who put their guard down and/or have refused to wear a mask because somehow a global pandemic caused political division, but it is also probable that thousands of West Virginians contracted COVID-19 but could not afford to miss two weeks’ worth of work to quarantine. If you urged the governor to offer the government-funded free testing in April and he refused the policy, shame on your boss.
Sincerely,
Mourners of Mistreated Mountaineers
