[Excerpt]

Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates joined VIP’s Leaders Assembly on July 22 ...for a public strategy to accelerate COVID-19 Testing and Contact Tracing. VIP Leaders taught the crucial strategy needed to suppress the coronavirus and engender the trust required to open the economy and schools. With emphasis on Testing, Tracing and Supported Isolation (TTSI), the strategy is based on conversations with Danielle Allen, lead author of the Harvard report, Roadmap to Pandemic Resilience (link to the study). VIP Congregations have stepped up in support of this strategy, offering their facilities as trusted sites for testing centers and the commitment to recruit individuals from the community to be trained as contact tracers.

The urgency of this moment was clearly demonstrated with stories: from frontline workers about how COVID-19 has overtaken all aspects of healthcare to a mother’s concern for loved ones in prison, where only minimal protections have been offered as the virus spreads throughout the facility.

150 VIP Leaders Assemble Online with Supervisor Bill Gates to Discuss COVID-19 Strategies, Valley Interfaith Project