Charlotte shouldn’t be a test case for COVID-19. Here’s what the RNC needs to do next.

Please meet my husband. He just stripped to his underwear in our doorway. In a moment he’ll hurry to the laundry room, jam his scrubs into the washing machine, then wave hello as he heads to the shower. This is his routine after every 12-hour shift at the hospital. A routine, we hope, that will prevent COVID-19 from coursing through our home.

He’s among the physicians, nurses, and others in Charlotte-area hospitals who could care for a surge in patients come September if the Republican National Convention goes on as planned Aug. 24-27. Fueled by President Trump’s threat to move the convention if Spectrum Center can’t be “fully occupied,” the RNC’s “full steam ahead” plan is putting Charlotte at risk of becoming a hot spot for the coronavirus.

Think about what’s ahead. Delegates, conventioneers, partiers and protesters arrive here from across the country. Some are asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19. Others pick up the disease in Charlotte and take it back to their communities and states. No hopeful promises from RNC officials about wearing masks and social distancing can counter that reality. Look at crowded beaches for a preview of distancing at convention parties.

Maybe you’ve heard about superspreader events, the mass gatherings that helped the virus go wild, from a meeting in Boston to a carnival party in Germany. Some scientists believe a ban on mass gatherings could be a key way to contain the pandemic. The RNC has been projected to attract 50,000 visitors.

Charlotte shouldn’t agree to be an international experiment on what happens when you combine thousands of people, add the virus, and stir. RNC officials have privately discussed whether to limit the convention to roughly 2,500 delegates, according to The New York Times. That’s an improvement. But President Trump has vowed to relocate the festivities if Gov. Roy Cooper doesn’t allow “full attendance” and gave the governor a week to decide.

What needs to happen is just the opposite. RNC officials must alter their rules and make contingency plans to hold a virtual convention, especially if cases don’t drop significantly here soon. If Republicans refuse to take that step and would rather relocate the convention, so be it, though the public health issues won’t lessen in a Florida hotel ballroom or a Texas convention center unless far fewer people show up.

N.C. Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen isn’t the only expert who thinks mass gatherings will be “a very big challenge” should cases here continue to rise. Irwin Redlener, a professor in health policy at Columbia University and national leader in disaster preparedness, told me it would be “a public health calamity” and the “height of irresponsibility” for either party to hold a typical political convention without point-of-contact testing.

By that, he means an on-site, rapid, reliable test for COVID-19 of every person at the convention each day. Not temperature checks, but daily testing. Without it, he said, “nobody gets into the building.” I don’t see that happening.

Bill Hanage, associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard University, is more cautious, believing it’s hard to predict the situation in August. But he also wouldn’t recommend planning a large event now because a smaller gathering would be safer. “The larger it is, naturally the greater the chance that at least one attendee will be infected and a potential superspreader.”

We can’t ignore that nearly 44% of COVID-19 cases in Mecklenburg County are among African Americans, though they comprise about a third of the population. Hispanic residents, with 20% of cases in the county, also have been disproportionately hit. Will the RNC’s largely white conventioneers leave local people of color to deal with the public health aftermath of their celebration?

This isn’t an easy call. North Carolina has lost more than half a million jobs. Organizers predicted the convention would infuse $121 million into the local economy. I wish I could say bring it on, but not with 50,000 people or even half that. We need to develop other ways to boost Charlotte’s hospitality sector besides a traditional political convention.

It’s time for RNC officials to take a stand for the health of the party, the city, and the nation. They should announce contingency plans for a delegates-only convention and a virtual one, enacting the best option based on our region’s COVID-19 trends this summer. And Gov. Cooper must prolong North Carolina’s ban on mass gatherings until it’s safe to lift it. That’s the way forward, grounded in science, no matter how the president might respond.

Andrea Cooper is a writer and editor in Charlotte.