Our Cause
Frontline medical providers don’t have enough personal protective equipment (PPE) to safely fight COVID-19.
For most Americans, the best thing you can do to prevent the spread of COVID-19 is to practice social distancing and wash your hands frequently. But for frontline medical providers, the story is a little different. The healthcare workers who care for COVID-19 patients need specialized personal protective equipment (PPE) — masks, gloves, face shields and gowns — to reduce their risk of exposure to COVID-19.
PPE helps to protect frontline medical providers from contracting COVID-19, and ensures that COVID-19 is not accidentally transmitted between patients. We need adequate supplies of PPE to use according to standard CDC protocols so we can change gowns between patients, and do not have to re-use masks. PPE shortages are currently posing a tremendous challenge to the US healthcare system because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Healthcare facilities are having difficulty accessing the needed PPE and are having to identify alternate ways to provide patient care.
To conserve PPE supplies, healthcare systems are resorting to CDC crisis strategy protocols. These crisis strategies include:
Re-using masks: for example, masks are not changed masks between patients, or are re-worn for several days/weeks, unless they are soiled or damaged
Using non-standard methods to disinfect PPE: used PPE is placed under UV light or heated in oven
Using homemade PPE: homemade masks (e.g., bandana, scarf) are used, as a last resort, when FDA-approved face masks are unavailable.
These crisis CDC strategies to conserve PPE are not as safe, and may increase the risk of transmission of COVID-19 to frontline medical providers, their patients, their families, and their communities.
What is PPE?
Image from: getusPPE.org
How can the PPE supply be increased across the U.S.?
In addition to conserving current PPE supplies by resorting to CDC crisis capacity strategies, many healthcare systems and states are also scrambling to augment their current PPE supplies by importing PPE other countries that manufacture PPE. However, the U.S. may not be able to import enough PPE to meet upcoming anticipated frontline and community needs for the months to come. Also, this imported PPE is often more expensive than usual because of increased demand and health system/state competition.
Some U.S. manufacturers and private citizens have stepped up to volunteer to manufacture PPE. We are grateful to the many home producers of masks who are working hard — in basements and garages — to help our cause. Every additional unit of PPE helps reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19. However, this volunteer response is not enough to meet our anticipated frontline needs over the next year.
The solution? We need a coordinated national effort to manufacture and fairly distribute PPE here in the United States.
We need the White House to invoke the federal Defense Production Act to compel the manufacturing industry to manufacture PPE. The White House implemented this federal law on March 27, 2020 to compel the manufacturing of ventilators, and now we are calling on the White House to use this federal law to ramp up production and distribution of PPE. Now. Every day that he delays means increased risk — of COVID-19 infection and potential illness and death — to our frontline medical providers and their patients — our family, friends, our colleagues, and ourselves.
We. Need. Your. Help.
We need your help. What can you do?
Come march with us at our Virtual March for All on Saturday, May 2nd from 11am PDT / 2 pm EDT to 1 pm PDT/ 4 pm EDT.
We need each of you to call, email or tweet at your Governor. (Calls and tweets are better because emails are often overlooked during this pandemic). Ask your Governor to call on the White House to invoke the Defense Production Act for PPE — so that U.S. companies can use the benefits of this law to manufacture and fairly distribute masks and other PPE.
Spread the word about our Virtual March for All — through your email contacts and your social media — to your family, friends and colleagues throughout the United States.
Share your PPE story!
To take your first step, click below.