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Docs Buck Bosses to Beg Cuomo for Coronavirus Protective Gear
https://www.thedailybeast.com/cuomo-begged-for-coronavirus-protective-gear-by-doctors-nurses
Is sterilizing and reusing masks and other medical equipment safe? Frontline health-care workers are worried they’re about to find out.
Erin Banco
National Security Reporter
Olivia Messer
Reporter
Updated Mar. 31, 2020 6:05AM ET / Published Mar. 31, 2020 4:44AM ET
Shortages of personal protective equipment in some New York City medical facilities have grown so dire that health-care professionals are bucking directives from their executives to reuse gear and making an end-run at Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office to plead for additional supplies.
Over the past two weeks, a handful of New York health-care executives told state representatives—including those in Cuomo’s office—that they were not running low on personal protective equipment (PPE) because they implemented protocols directing staff to reuse items like face masks and gowns when treating COVID-19 patients, according to three individuals familiar with the conversations. Executives said they drafted those protocols, which include sanitization of personal protective gear, based on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), those sources said.
But the lack of protective gear and the restrictions on the stockpiles have forced some health-care professionals in the city to resort to wearing trash bags over their scrubs to imitate medical gowns. Doctors and nurses are at times forced to wear makeshift face shields to preserve the heavy-duty ones.
Now, medical workers are reaching out directly to state officials, including Governor Cuomo, to ask for help.
“There’s this idea out there that everything is fine and we all have what we need, but that really isn’t the case,” said one nurse who spoke to The Daily Beast anonymously because they did not want to lose their job. “We took on the job of calling the governor’s office ourselves and letting them know the situation we were in.”
The conversations come as the number of coronavirus cases continues to spike in New York. In a 24-hour period ending Monday, almost 7,000 people in the state tested positive for the virus, and 253 people died. The calls to the governor’s office by doctors and nurses about the shortages of protective gear underscore the severity of the situation, particularly in New York City, where some hospitals last week set up makeshift morgues.
</snip>
Is sterilizing and reusing masks and other medical equipment safe? Frontline health-care workers are worried they’re about to find out.
Erin Banco
National Security Reporter
Olivia Messer
Reporter
Updated Mar. 31, 2020 6:05AM ET / Published Mar. 31, 2020 4:44AM ET
Shortages of personal protective equipment in some New York City medical facilities have grown so dire that health-care professionals are bucking directives from their executives to reuse gear and making an end-run at Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office to plead for additional supplies.
Over the past two weeks, a handful of New York health-care executives told state representatives—including those in Cuomo’s office—that they were not running low on personal protective equipment (PPE) because they implemented protocols directing staff to reuse items like face masks and gowns when treating COVID-19 patients, according to three individuals familiar with the conversations. Executives said they drafted those protocols, which include sanitization of personal protective gear, based on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), those sources said.
But the lack of protective gear and the restrictions on the stockpiles have forced some health-care professionals in the city to resort to wearing trash bags over their scrubs to imitate medical gowns. Doctors and nurses are at times forced to wear makeshift face shields to preserve the heavy-duty ones.
Now, medical workers are reaching out directly to state officials, including Governor Cuomo, to ask for help.
“There’s this idea out there that everything is fine and we all have what we need, but that really isn’t the case,” said one nurse who spoke to The Daily Beast anonymously because they did not want to lose their job. “We took on the job of calling the governor’s office ourselves and letting them know the situation we were in.”
The conversations come as the number of coronavirus cases continues to spike in New York. In a 24-hour period ending Monday, almost 7,000 people in the state tested positive for the virus, and 253 people died. The calls to the governor’s office by doctors and nurses about the shortages of protective gear underscore the severity of the situation, particularly in New York City, where some hospitals last week set up makeshift morgues.
</snip>
4 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
For-profit hospitals (GROSSLY for-profit) are the bane on the American healthcare system. 
