With the spread of coronavirus infection in the U.S., it became clear that the country can not provide enough personal protective equipment for physicians. Today, this shortage has resulted in protests from American physicians.
The U.S. has decided to save on nurses – physicians are revolting due to lack of protective equipment.
This was reported by the agency “Associated Press” on Thursday, April 16.
Journalists talked to nurse Mike Gulik. He told that he had to stay in a hotel to take a shower there. He was washing his clothes with a disinfectant. He did all this so he wouldn’t bring the coronavirus to his wife and two-year-old daughter’s house. But while working at the Providence Saint John Medical Center in Santa Monica, he encountered a lack of N95 medical masks that could protect against COVID-19. The center’s administration claimed that these masks were unnecessary until one of the nurses contracted coronavirus.
She was Angela Gatdula. The woman said that she asked the management why the level of protection of doctors is higher than that of the nurse? The administration referred to the CDC standards. The problem is that this federal agency underestimates the minimum requirements for individual protection of physicians, given the lack of appropriate products. In March, it went so far that doctors were officially allowed to use bandanas instead of masks. At the same time, it was reported that at least 9.2 thousand health workers were infected.
Angela herself made a quick recovery. She’ll be able to work again next week. At the same time, she admits that not everyone will survive the disease as easily.
“Another nurse who faces it may be unlucky. They may need to be hospitalized. They could die”,- Angela said.
After the incident, mid-level medical personnel made a condition to the hospital management that they would not go to work until they were provided with N95 masks.
According to media reports, the incident is one of many throughout the country. Without proper protection, nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals had to work in the midst of the epidemic. Against this background, mass protests started in the United States. Nursing unions in New York, Massachusetts, Michigan, Illinois, California and Pennsylvania have already announced strikes. They are distributing appeals on social networks with the hashtag “PPEoverProfit”.