Jews in the D

26 | SEPTEMBER 3 • 2020 

W

hen Dr. Aaron Milstone, origi-
nally of Lathrup Village, started 
to see COVID-19 cases rise in his 
current home of Tennessee back in March, 
he knew the state’
s government would have 
to act fast to contain an outbreak. 
Milstone, a pulmonary critical care 
physician based in Franklin, and another 
Nashville-area doctor felt a stay-at-home 
order would help the state keep the virus at 
bay. But Tennessee’
s Republican Governor 
Bill Lee wasn’
t keen on mandating one. 
Milstone and his friend realized they had an 
uphill battle ahead of them. 
“We knew on the front end that we were 
probably going to get into a quagmire with 
all of this,
” Milstone told the Jewish News. 
The pair set up an online petition urging 
Gov. Lee to issue a stay-at-home order in 
Tennessee, figuring they’
d need to get 100-
200 doctors to sign it before sending it to 
the governor. By the next morning, though, 
they already had signatures of 500 medical 
professionals from across the state. 
“It was internists. It was family practi-
tioners. There were gynecologists on there. 
There were pathologists on there. And the 
one unifying theme was that we needed 
a stay-at-home mandate for the state of 
Tennessee,
” Milstone said. 
In less than a week, the petition had gar-
nered over 2,000 signatures, and Milstone 
got the Tennessee Medical Association and 
other medical organizations to support their 
cause, too. Local media outlets began to take 
notice of Milstone’
s efforts, and when the 
petition was opened up to non-doctors, over 
35,000 Tennesseans signed on in support of 
a stay-at-home order in less than a week. But 
Gov. Lee would not commit to the order. 

Soon Milstone’
s local media attention 
turned into international media attention. 
He began doing interviews with CNN, 
Forbes, Bloomberg and MSNBC. His 
team was mentioned in newspapers in San 
Francisco, Missouri and London. 
When still no change had been made, 
Milstone reached out to Bill Frist, a former 
Tennessee senator and a doctor himself. 
Frist, a Republican, signed the petition and 
on April 9, Milstone’
s team held a press con-
ference to announce the development. Later 
that same day, Gov. Lee announced that 
Tennessee would be under a stay-at-home 
order. 
“We end up with this ragtag bunch of 
doctors and pharmaceutical reps and may-
ors and a couple teenagers,
” he said of the 
team he worked with on the campaign. 
“It’
s just an incredible story of how a team 
of people that had never been associated 
with one another in anything like this came 
together to be able to … create change. 
“Unfortunately,
” Milstone said, “the story 
doesn’
t end there.
” 

NOT ENOUGH
Tennessee’
s stay-at-home order lasted about 
three weeks, and Milstone said it decreased 
the amount of COVID-19 cases in the state 
dramatically. His team issued a series of 
press releases warning against opening too 
quickly, but by the end of April, much of the 
state began to reopen without social distanc-
ing or proper safety precautions. 
“Basically, we realize that, despite being 
able to turn down the volume for a month 
and a half, we have more work to be done,
” 
Milstone said. 
His team is now urging the Tennessee 
government to issue a mask mandate. 
Gov. Lee has been unwilling to require 
masks in public so far, despite urging from 
Dr. Deborah Birx of the White House 
Coronavirus Response Taskforce and the 
Tennessee attorney general stating that a 
mandate would be constitutional. 
Milstone and his team are currently hold-

ing press conferences and organizing people 
to write letters to the governor in favor of a 
mask mandate. 
“It’
s just a very difficult time for every-
body. But [masks are] such a simple fix. It’
s 
such a juxtaposition to Gretchen Whitmer,
” 
he said, referencing Michigan’
s Gov. 
Gretchen Whitmer, who issued an exec-
utive order requiring masks in Michigan’
s 
enclosed public spaces at the end of April. 
Tennessee has seen nearly 125,000 cases of 
the virus this year, while over 98,000 have 
been logged in Michigan. 
Milstone moved to Tennessee in 1994 for 
his medical residency, but he grew up in 
Lathrup Village and attended medical school 
at Wayne State University. His father used 
to be a fundraiser for the Jewish Welfare 
Foundation and, though his parents now live 
in Florida, he still has family in the Metro 
Detroit area. During the pandemic, missing 
Michigan has taken on a new meaning for 
Milstone. 
“I think one of the interesting juxtapo-
sitions is just showing the demographic 
data difference in terms of where we [in 
Tennessee] are with the pandemic versus 
Michigan. I would love to be Michigan,
” 
Milstone said. “Michigan, to me, represents 
what we should be.
” 
In addition to his advocacy work, 
Milstone has spent the pandemic working 
directly with COVID-19 patients. 
“In practicing medicine for 25 years, I 
personally have never seen anything quite 
like this,
” he said. “I’
ve never seen anything 
so communicative — so easy to catch. And 
I’
ve never seen something that picks certain 
people to make them really sick and picks 
other people to cause no symptoms what-
soever.
” 
But Milstone remains optimistic that the 
virus will eventually be contained across the 
globe through better treatments and viable 
vaccines. 
“I think that that with time and effort, we 
will get better than where we are right now,
” 
he said. 

Mask Crusader

Doctor with Detroit roots fi
 ghts for 
better COVID precautions in Tennessee.

MAYA GOLDMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Dr. Aaron 
Milstone

