The nation’s medical professionals are now begging. The richest nation on earth doesn’t have the ability to provide health care workers with the basic necessities to do their job in a pandemic. From testing kits to ventilators to masks, supplies are running short or never existed in the first place. The Atlantic spoke with 22 health care professionals:
“This is a disaster. [Our health-care workers] are risking their lives,” the physician told me. “We need to advocate for our frontline workers.”
“Most of the health-care professionals I interviewed, including the physician in New York, asked to remain anonymous. “I’ve got small kids to support. I can’t afford backlash from my institution [for speaking out],” said a physician from Baltimore, echoing the fears of many colleagues. Regardless, he reached out because he finds the current situation “maddening and exhausting” and believes it must be fixed.
“…The shortage of personal protective equipment is particularly acute. Medical workers are supposed to be using N95 masks, which reduce their exposure by filtering out at least 95 percent of particles in the air. But on Wednesday, President Trump said his administration had ordered 500 million of these masks after receiving complaints about widespread shortages. To cope with the burgeoning coronavirus crisis, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told nurses to use bandanas and scarves as last-resort masks. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, meanwhile, have access to N95 masks as they apprehend immigrants during a national pandemic.“