Nearly five months into the coronavirus crisis and less than a week after Trump insisted that his administration had “made every decision correctly,” chronic PPE shortages persist. Donald Trump’s inability to secure the necessary protective equipment to save American lives is hurting people across the country: health care workers are dying at an alarming rate, calls are growing for Trump to increase production of crucial supplies, hospitals in marginalized communities are disproportionately suffering shortages, and the virus is ravaging nursing homes.
As The Trump Administration Plans To Ask Nurses To Reuse Masks, PPE Shortages Continue To Have Deadly Consequences
Roll Call: Internal Document Reveals Federal Plan To Ask Nurses To Reuse Masks
- “The document confirms the fears of nurses and other health care providers. After months of pressure on federal officials to use wartime powers to mobilize U.S. plants, the document’s slides show that domestic manufacturing of gowns and surgical masks has ticked up by a few thousand per month since the pandemic hit, falling far short of need. The United States still does not manufacture any nitrile rubber gloves.” [Roll Call, 6/9/20]
- “The slides show FEMA’s plan to ramp up supply into June and July hinges on the reusing of N95 masks and surgical gowns, increasing the risk of contamination. Those are supposed to be disposed of after one use.” [Roll Call, 6/9/20]
FEMA Document: “The Demand For Gowns Outpaces Current U.S. Manufacturing Capabilities.”
- “‘Internal Federal Emergency Management Agency data show that the government’s supply of surgical gowns has not meaningfully increased since photos first emerged in March of nurses wearing trash bags for protection. ‘The demand for gowns outpaces current U.S. manufacturing capabilities,’ a document released Tuesday says.” [Roll Call, 6/9/20]
National Union Of Healthcare Workers President Sal Rosselli Said Only One Of The 200 Institutions Where They Have Members Working Has Adequate PPE.
- “Sal Rosselli, president of the National Union of Healthcare Workers, which represents 15,000 people, mostly in California and Hawaii, who work in acute care hospitals, nursing homes, outpatient and mental health clinics and some jails, said of the 200 institutions where they have members working, only one has adequate PPE. ‘It’s a huge problem,’ he said. ‘At almost all facilities, they are forcing health care workers to reuse. Some are given one N95 a week.’” [NBC News, 6/12/20]
Staff At Some Major Hospitals Are Being Told They Can No Longer Wear N95 Masks If They Are On Floors Without Covid Patients, A Policy Nurses Worry Leaves Them Unprotected Against False Negatives.
- “And staff at some major hospitals are now being told that they can no longer wear N95 masks during their shifts if they work on floors that do not have COVID-19 patients, a new measure to conserve equipment.” [NBC News, 6/12/20]
- “One ER nurse at a New Jersey hospital, who declined to give her name because she could lose her job for speaking to the media, said the new policy was causing anxiety among staff. ‘My worry is that with the widely publicized reliability of the [coronavirus] tests, there will be false negatives, and those people will end up on those ‘clean’ floors, further infecting others now unprotected’ she said. ‘Any caregiver in the hospital should have the N95’.” [NBC News, 6/12/20]
California ICU Nurse Amy Arlund Said Of Her N95: “You Are Asked To Reuse Them For Weeks On End… You Have To Justify To Your Manager Repeatedly Why You Need A New One.”
- “Amy Arlund, an intensive care unit nurse in California, starts every overnight shift hoping her supervisors will give her a fresh N95 respirator. ‘You are asked to reuse them for weeks on end,’ Arlund, 45, told NBC News. ‘You have to justify to your manager repeatedly why you need a new one.’” [NBC News, 6/12/20]
In Late May, A Nurse At Kaiser Permanente Fresno Medical Center Died After She Was Exposed To A Covid Patient And Had No PPE On Her Floor.
- “Arlund is all too familiar with the frightening results of the crisis: a nurse at her hospital, Kaiser Permanente Fresno Medical Center, died of COVID-19 at the end of May. ‘She was exposed from a patient who was not properly isolated and she had no PPE on her floor,’ she said. ‘She spent almost two months in our ICU being cared for by her co-workers and her own friends and she passed away.’” [NBC News, 6/12/20]
The Guardian: Nearly 600 US Health Workers Died Of Covid-19 – And The Toll Is Rising.
- “Nearly 600 frontline healthcare workers have died of Covid-19, according to Lost on the Frontline, a project launched by the Guardian and Kaiser Health News (KHN) that aims to count, verify and memorialize and every healthcare worker who dies during the pandemic.” [The Guardian, 6/6/20]
- “Many were forced to reuse masks countless times amid widespread equipment shortages. Others had only trash bags for protection. Some deaths have been met with employers’ silence or denials that they were infected at work.” [The Guardian, 6/6/20]
Calls Are Growing For The Trump Administration To Increase Production Of Life-Saving Medical Supplies
National Nurses United President Zenei Cortez: “If There Is Concern That Our Nation’s Health Facilities Do Not Have Enough Disposable, Impermeable Gowns, The Presidential Administration Needs To Use The Defense Production Act.”
- “’Fluid impermeable gowns are an important part of the overall personal protective equipment ensemble. We must protect our health care workers, and if there is concern that our nation’s health facilities do not have enough disposable, impermeable gowns, the presidential administration needs to use the Defense Production Act to direct our manufacturing industries to immediately make them, in addition to the N95 respirator masks and other PPE gear we also need to fight this virus for the long term,’ Zenei Cortez, president of National Nurses United, said in a statement after the FDA deregulated the use of cloth gowns in medical settings in April.” [Roll Call, 6/9/20]
National Nurses United Co-President Deborah Burger: “Five Months In, It’s Really Immoral That [Federal Officials] Haven’t Stepped Up To The Plate.”
- “‘I hoped that the federal government would have stepped in to demand an increase in production and accountability so that we could deal with this,’ said Deborah Burger, co-president of the National Nurses United and president of the California Nurses Association. ‘But five months in, it’s really immoral that they haven’t stepped up to the plate.’” [NBC News, 6/12/20]
- “Burger says there’s been little transparency in the way PPE from the Strategic National Stockpile, for example, has been distributed. ‘We don’t know where they’re distributed to and how many we actually have in any given place,’ she said.” [[NBC News, 6/12/20]
Despite These Shortages, The Administration Has Spent Less Than Half Of The $16 Billion Congress Allocated To Bulk Up Medical Supplies In The Strategic National Stockpile.
- “A separate $100 million appropriation to help the Federal Emergency Management Agency purchase personal protective equipment for firefighters also hasn’t been spent. Additionally, less than half the $16 billion Congress dedicated over four separate pieces of legislation to bulking up critical medical supplies in the Strategic National Stockpile has been spent, according to the Democrats’ calculations.” [Washington Post, 6/8/20]
Hospitals In Low-Income And Marginalized Communities Are Among Those Hardest Hit By PPE Shortages
NBC News: Few N95 Masks, Reused Gowns: Dire PPE Shortages Reveal Covid-19’s Racial Divide.
- “In the early days of the pandemic, PPE shortages were affecting many major hospitals. But most of those larger facilities have now been able to replenish their supplies. Now, health care workers say it’s smaller safety net hospitals and nursing homes serving the most vulnerable communities that are still facing horrific shortages.” [NBC News, 6/12/20]
- “‘They are populations that are on Medicaid or have poor access to care and face greater barriers,’ said Dr. Garth Walker, an emergency room physician in Chicago, who also works with the Buehler Center for Health Policy and Economics. “The common theme is that safety net hospitals are getting less money.’” [NBC News, 6/12/20]
An Illinois ER Physician Explained That Her Safety Net Hospital Is Only Getting New N95 Masks Every Few Shifts And Is Running Out Of Gowns.
- Another ER physician in Illinois, who works at a safety net hospital, said they’re only getting new N95 masks every few shifts. And now the hospital is running out of gowns. So they are reusing them, which puts both the health care workers and the patients at risk. Typically, doctors wear a new gown for each patient. ‘What you end up doing is wearing the same gown for basically the whole shift,’ said the doctor, who asked that her name not be used out of fear of losing her job.” [NBC News, 6/12/20]
ER Physician Dr. Megan Ranney: “Whether It’s The Elderly, Minority Populations, Populations Affected By Structural Racism And Historical Injustice, Those Are The Very Groups That Have The Most Difficult Time Getting Adequate PPE For Their Workers.”
- “‘Whether it’s the elderly, minority populations, populations affected by structural racism and historical injustice, those are the very groups that have the most difficult time getting adequate PPE for their workers,’ Dr. Megan Ranney, an ER physician at Brown Emergency Medicine in Rhode Island, said.” [NBC News, 6/12/20]
And Shortages Are Leaving Nursing Homes Behind As The Crisis Worsens In Long-Term Care Facilities
Kaiser Health News: Federal Help Falters As Nursing Homes Run Short Of Protective Equipment.
- “As nursing homes remain the pandemic’s epicenter, the federal government is failing to ensure they have all the personal protective equipment, or PPE, needed to prevent the spread of the virus, according to interviews with administrators and federal data.” [Kaiser Health News, 6/11/20]
- “Despite President Donald Trump’s pledge April 30 to ‘deploy every resource and power that we have’ to protect older Americans, a fifth of the nation’s nursing homes — 3,213 out of more than 15,000 — reported during the last two weeks of May that they had less than a week’s supply of masks, gowns, gloves, eye protectors or hand sanitizer, according to federal records. Of those, 946 reported they had at least one confirmed COVID infection since the pandemic began.” [Kaiser Health News, 6/11/20]
President And CEO of ArchCare Scott LaRue: “The Federal Government’s Failure To Nationalize The Supply Chain And Take Control Of It Contributed To The Deaths In Nursing Homes.”
- “‘The federal government’s failure to nationalize the supply chain and take control of it contributed to the deaths in nursing homes,’ said Scott LaRue, president and CEO of ArchCare, the health care system of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, which operates five nursing homes.” [Kaiser Health News, 6/11/20]
National Consumer Voice For Quality Long-Term Care Executive Director Lori Smetanka: “We’re Now — What? — Three Months Into This Pandemic, And These Facilities Still Don’t Have Enough PPE To Protect Themselves And Their Residents?”
- “‘The federal government has got to step up,’ said Lori Smetanka, executive director of the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. ‘We’re now — what? — three months into this pandemic, and these facilities still don’t have enough PPE to protect themselves and their residents?’” [Kaiser Health News, 6/11/20]