[1]National Nurses United



As politicians grandstand on television, promising time and again that
proper personal protective equipment (PPE) is on the way, there is one
question on far too many nurses’ minds: “Where is it? Where is the PPE?”

Too many nurses and other health care workers are still going without the
equipment we desperately need to protect ourselves and our patients from
COVID-19.

That means those of us on the front lines of this crisis are going to work
every day wondering when we’ll contract the virus, when we’ll pass it to a
patient, or when we’ll bring it home to our families. We have been
sounding the alarm since January. We cannot continue to wait for PPE. All
of our lives are on the line.

[ [link removed] ]Help us make even more noise: Tell the White House that we cannot delay
any further — use the Defense Production Act to get PPE to nurses NOW.

[ [link removed] ]Add your name »

On Friday of last week, President Trump used the Defense Production Act of
1950 to order ventilators from General Motors needed for hospitalized
COVID-19 patients. It’s a step in the right direction, but as one nurse
recently put it: "Without this PPE, we won’t need the ventilators, because
none of us will be around to run them."

It is the responsibility of our employers to provide a safe workplace,
including proper PPE, to all their staff. And it is up to our elected
officials to make sure our government is doing everything in its power to
dramatically expand production and distribution of the equipment we need
to protect nurses, other health care workers, and our patients.

The Defense Production Act gives President Trump the authority to direct
U.S. manufacturers to mass produce N95 respirators and other critical
protective equipment for health care workers. But so far, he has refused
to do so.

[ [link removed] ]Please, demand that President Trump immediately exerciseuse his full
authority under the Defense Production Act to ramp up production and rush
supplies to nurses on the front lines of COVID-19.

We must make our voices impossible to ignore. All our lives depend on it.

In solidarity,

Deborah Burger, RN
Zenei Cortez, RN
Jean Ross, RN
Council of Presidents, National Nurses United



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