SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
New York City nurses and health workers gather at a 'COVID-19 Frontline Health Worker Action' event on April 6, 2020 in New York City to demand safer working conditions, more personal protective equipment (PPE) and free virus testing during the COVID-19 outbreak. (Photo:Giles Clarke/Getty Images)
'How Many More Nurses Have to Die?': Coalition of Nurses Unions Demand Life-Saving Supplies in Battle With Coronavirus
"We now bear the full brunt of a healthcare system rendered dysfunctional after years of relentless funding cuts for public health, while generating obscene profits for corporate interests."
Apr 06, 2020
A coalition of nurses' unions on Monday demanded their members be protected in the fight against the coronavirus outbreak threatening to overwhelm the U.S. healthcare system, describing a dysfunctional approach to the pandemic that is putting frontline healthcare workers' lives in danger.
"What nurses see is every hospital operating in haphazard fashion," said Rose Roach, executive director of the Minnesota Nurses Association, in a statement. "No hospital is using the same protocols. No hospital is maintaining the same procedures. They operate differently, day to day, and even shift to shift."
The coronavirus, or COVID-19, global pandemic has already hit the U.S. healthcare system with a fury--exposing insufficient levels of personal protective equipment (PPE) for workers--and the peak of hospitalizations around the nation is not expected for another week or more.
"Instead of answering the demands nurses have been making for months to their employers and elected officials to ensure safe workplaces to protect themselves, their patients, and the public, hospitals have instead sent nurses to the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic with bandanas, scarves, and trash bags as protection," said Bonnie Castillo, executive director of National Nurses United (NNU).
NNU and the Minnesota Nurses Association are joined in the demand by the D.C. Nurses Association, the National Nurses Organizing Committee, the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA), and the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP).
"The health of our communities and the lives of our families, friends, and neighbors depends on how we protect frontline nurses and healthcare workers right now," said MNA president Donna Kelly-Williams.
As Common Dreams has reported, nurses and other frontline healthcare workers have for over a month raised the alarm over the lack of access to PPE for staff and have demanded a change in how they are treated in hospitals and other healthcare facilities as they confront the coronavirus. The blame for the lack of access, said NYSNA president Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, rests squarely on a system that operates for profit, not human life and health.
"We now bear the full brunt of a healthcare system rendered dysfunctional after years of relentless funding cuts for public health, while generating obscene profits for corporate interests," said Sheridan-Gonzalez. "Life-protecting, life-saving equipment should have been assembled, trained practitioners should have been mobilized en masse, infrastructure should have been up and running, arming us with the tools to confront the most devastating crisis of our lifetime."
The coalition stressed that time is slipping away to change the tide but that there was still an opportunity for the federal government to step in and ensure standard practices are followed.
"Inaction has put us and our families at risk" said PASNAP president Maureen May. "Congress and the White House must act now and use the Defense Production Act to get personal protective equipment into our hospitals without further delay."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
A coalition of nurses' unions on Monday demanded their members be protected in the fight against the coronavirus outbreak threatening to overwhelm the U.S. healthcare system, describing a dysfunctional approach to the pandemic that is putting frontline healthcare workers' lives in danger.
"What nurses see is every hospital operating in haphazard fashion," said Rose Roach, executive director of the Minnesota Nurses Association, in a statement. "No hospital is using the same protocols. No hospital is maintaining the same procedures. They operate differently, day to day, and even shift to shift."
The coronavirus, or COVID-19, global pandemic has already hit the U.S. healthcare system with a fury--exposing insufficient levels of personal protective equipment (PPE) for workers--and the peak of hospitalizations around the nation is not expected for another week or more.
"Instead of answering the demands nurses have been making for months to their employers and elected officials to ensure safe workplaces to protect themselves, their patients, and the public, hospitals have instead sent nurses to the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic with bandanas, scarves, and trash bags as protection," said Bonnie Castillo, executive director of National Nurses United (NNU).
NNU and the Minnesota Nurses Association are joined in the demand by the D.C. Nurses Association, the National Nurses Organizing Committee, the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA), and the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP).
"The health of our communities and the lives of our families, friends, and neighbors depends on how we protect frontline nurses and healthcare workers right now," said MNA president Donna Kelly-Williams.
As Common Dreams has reported, nurses and other frontline healthcare workers have for over a month raised the alarm over the lack of access to PPE for staff and have demanded a change in how they are treated in hospitals and other healthcare facilities as they confront the coronavirus. The blame for the lack of access, said NYSNA president Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, rests squarely on a system that operates for profit, not human life and health.
"We now bear the full brunt of a healthcare system rendered dysfunctional after years of relentless funding cuts for public health, while generating obscene profits for corporate interests," said Sheridan-Gonzalez. "Life-protecting, life-saving equipment should have been assembled, trained practitioners should have been mobilized en masse, infrastructure should have been up and running, arming us with the tools to confront the most devastating crisis of our lifetime."
The coalition stressed that time is slipping away to change the tide but that there was still an opportunity for the federal government to step in and ensure standard practices are followed.
"Inaction has put us and our families at risk" said PASNAP president Maureen May. "Congress and the White House must act now and use the Defense Production Act to get personal protective equipment into our hospitals without further delay."
A coalition of nurses' unions on Monday demanded their members be protected in the fight against the coronavirus outbreak threatening to overwhelm the U.S. healthcare system, describing a dysfunctional approach to the pandemic that is putting frontline healthcare workers' lives in danger.
"What nurses see is every hospital operating in haphazard fashion," said Rose Roach, executive director of the Minnesota Nurses Association, in a statement. "No hospital is using the same protocols. No hospital is maintaining the same procedures. They operate differently, day to day, and even shift to shift."
The coronavirus, or COVID-19, global pandemic has already hit the U.S. healthcare system with a fury--exposing insufficient levels of personal protective equipment (PPE) for workers--and the peak of hospitalizations around the nation is not expected for another week or more.
"Instead of answering the demands nurses have been making for months to their employers and elected officials to ensure safe workplaces to protect themselves, their patients, and the public, hospitals have instead sent nurses to the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic with bandanas, scarves, and trash bags as protection," said Bonnie Castillo, executive director of National Nurses United (NNU).
NNU and the Minnesota Nurses Association are joined in the demand by the D.C. Nurses Association, the National Nurses Organizing Committee, the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA), and the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP).
"The health of our communities and the lives of our families, friends, and neighbors depends on how we protect frontline nurses and healthcare workers right now," said MNA president Donna Kelly-Williams.
As Common Dreams has reported, nurses and other frontline healthcare workers have for over a month raised the alarm over the lack of access to PPE for staff and have demanded a change in how they are treated in hospitals and other healthcare facilities as they confront the coronavirus. The blame for the lack of access, said NYSNA president Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, rests squarely on a system that operates for profit, not human life and health.
"We now bear the full brunt of a healthcare system rendered dysfunctional after years of relentless funding cuts for public health, while generating obscene profits for corporate interests," said Sheridan-Gonzalez. "Life-protecting, life-saving equipment should have been assembled, trained practitioners should have been mobilized en masse, infrastructure should have been up and running, arming us with the tools to confront the most devastating crisis of our lifetime."
The coalition stressed that time is slipping away to change the tide but that there was still an opportunity for the federal government to step in and ensure standard practices are followed.
"Inaction has put us and our families at risk" said PASNAP president Maureen May. "Congress and the White House must act now and use the Defense Production Act to get personal protective equipment into our hospitals without further delay."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.