Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Healthcare workers need personal protective equipment, or PPE, to keep themselves safe when treating coronavirus patients, and they need to throw it out after using it to avoid spreading the virus. N95 respirator masks are especially important, but so are surgical masks, protective goggles, nitrile gloves, face shields, and disinfectant wipes. With the ongoing PPE shortage, medical workers are facing the grim prospect of administering tests and care with inadequate or no protection. (Homemade masks are not PPE.) We know from other countries that medical personnel are contracting the coronavirus at high rates, putting their lives at risk and forcing them to live in isolation from their families.
We need to get all existing PPE to the people who need it and make sure that more is being manufactured, so let’s get to it.