You can’t expect all citizens to recognize a public health disaster and respond appropriately. I am grateful to our governor and legislators for the concrete steps they are taking to deal with this crisis. I am happy to see that many organizations are doing the same.

Meanwhile, we have some state social services agencies and community medical providers who, unless things have changed since close of business on March 11, have done little or nothing to protect their staff or limit the spread of the virus. We have social workers and nurses moving through the community with neither guidance nor gear to protect themselves, risking infection and further spread.

One would think that this would have been a priority weeks ago and that there would have been an effort to allay the fears of staff and ongoing communication about planning and what next steps will be taken. This failure by agency heads and some community health administrators to take decisive action is negligent and immoral. It is ironic that while PetSmart and BJ’s are sending emails about coronavirus, we have health and social services agencies dragging their feet in this crisis.

We need action now. We need to demand it.

Nicolo Festa

New London