Personal protective equipment (PPE) and cleaning supplies
One of the most unconscionable sins of America’s COVID-19 response has been the lack of protective gear for our caregivers, resulting in an untallied number of illnesses and deaths of healthcare professionals. These are tragedies. And many could have been avoided with proper PPE, making it all even more heartbreaking.
Healthcare workers are doing heroic work. Personally, I have no idea how they cope and continue onwards. But here’s the thing. We should not be forcing our healthcare workers to martyr themselves. American medical professionals and their families did not volunteer to be exposed to such a deadly and contagious pathogen as COVID-19 without adequate personal protection. Medical workers should be treated and protected like the professionals that they are, not be thrown out there like cannon fodder. Being caring, decent, and knowledgeable are prerequisites for any good caregiver; being a martyr is not.
I heard about people in NYC applauding medical workers at 7PM, as the shift changes. It’s an important expression of appreciation and support. We’re all grateful, humbled, and stunned at the bravery and compassion shown by front-line workers.
But I’m also ashamed. I feel like we’ve sent our medical workers into a machine gun fight armed with their little more than their bare hands. DIYing it with garbage bags. PPE is such a basic healthcare provider need– how was there not enough by March? We’d had months of warning! How is there still not enough?
I’m just so, so sorry.
The shortage of PPE spilled forward onto other professions when the CDC instructed Americans en masse in January, February, and March not to buy masks or any other PPE*. These federal directives left many critical workers completely and utterly unprotected, even as their jobs caused them to be exposed to high levels of viral load. Public transportation workers seem to have been hit especially hard. I dare you to watch this video and not cry, knowing he died of COVID-19 not long after filming it. RIP Jason Hargrove. I’m so sorry. Why didn’t we do more to protect you?
Uber and Lyft drivers also seem to have been struck particularly hard. Police officers, too.
Then there are the other essential workers, the ones who often work part-time without benefits, who are still performing low wage jobs that require them to be face-to-face with hundreds a day, or to clean up after the rest of us. The grocery store workers, check-out clerks, housekeepers, and trash collectors. Many were sickened by COVID-19 before any of our country’s execs and higher-ups showed the modicum of common sense or compassion needed to allow their employees to enact even extremely low-budget protective measures like tape on the floor (which shows a safe distance for customers to stand), hand sanitizer, or disinfectant wipes. Many are still being sickened.
For the rest of us, even as we’re being told to keep and care for our sick family members at home, it’s still nearly impossible to get the gloves or masks or disinfectants we need in order to do so. And yet, we’re being told that, in short order, we’ll somehow all get back to our regular lives, with no provisions being given regarding whether or how PPE and cleaning supplies will be available.
So, listen up, all you economists, politicians, protesters, and thought leaders, you want America to go back to work? COVID-19 is dangerous but we aren’t powerless, and the first things we need are cleaning supplies and PPE. All of us.
The Megascope 