With Washingtonians’ lives on the line, we knew we had to act fast. Immediately after our initial call with WSHA on a Monday, we reached out to people within our network to see if anyone had friends or family members who were delaying their care. We were shocked by how many responses we got, as well as how quickly we received them. The number of cases we found amplified how important this message was, and we got right to work.

Working from our company ethos—telling the truth—we began gathering statements from those delaying care, and we found three major sentiments. People either thought hospitals didn’t have room for them and their health care wasn’t as important as coronavirus patients’, or that it wasn’t safe to go to a clinic or hospital because they could be exposed to the disease.