Grave Shortages of Protective Gear Flare Again as Covid Cases Surge
July 8
Five months into the pandemic, the U.S. still hasn’t solved the problem. The dearth of supplies is affecting a broad array of health facilities, renewing pleas for White House intervention.
“The inability to find personal protective equipment, known as P.P.E., is starting to impede other critical areas of medicine too. Neurologists, cardiologists and cancer specialists around the country have been unable to reopen their offices in recent weeks, leaving many patients without care, according to the American Medical Association and other doctor groups.
“We have kids living with grapefruit-sized abscesses for over three months who can’t eat or drink and there’s nothing we can do for them because we can’t get P.P.E.,” said Kay Kennel, the chief officer of Lubbock Kids Dental, a clinic serving low-income families in Texas that has a list of 50 children awaiting emergency surgery. “It’s been just horrible, and given the growing number of infections here, I’m afraid things are going to get worse.””
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“It’s been chaos for us,” said Randy Bury, president of the Good Samaritan Society, which has struggled to keep its 200 nursing homes supplied with hand sanitizer, masks and gowns. “The supply chain in the United States is not healthy, and we’ve learned we cannot depend on the government.””
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“Mr. Trump has
resisted using federal powers to address the problem, saying in March that individual governors should find their own gear because “We’re not a shipping clerk.” With the National Strategic Stockpile depleted, states have been left to fend for themselves, though the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been distributing modest shipments of gear to nursing homes and long-term care facilities.”
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““Nurses and health care workers are being forced to reuse masks with an unproven system,” said Deborah Burger, the organization’s co-president. “It’s almost five months into a pandemic in the richest country in the world and we’re putting people’s lives at risk because we don’t have enough P.P.E.”
The risks are not abstract. More than 900 health care workers have died of Covid-19, according to a tally by the organization, and Ms. Burger said many of the deaths have been linked to inadequate protective gear.
“There are tools at President Trump’s disposal and he has failed us,” she said. “These deaths are entirely preventable.”“
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