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US Doctors Warn of Imminent Crisis after Shortage of Protective Masks

US Doctors Warn of Imminent Crisis after Shortage of Protective Masks
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By Staff, Agencies

Doctors and medical staff across the United States are running out of masks that are essential for protecting them against the coronavirus.

The shortage is fast becoming a crisis within a crisis, as medical workers increasingly risk becoming infected at a time when healthcare services are already under strain.

“At the facility where I’m working now, the staff had been told they can have one paper mask per day,” Dr. L Anthony Cirillo, an emergency room physician in Dade City, Florida, told The Independent.

“Typically these are paper masks that you would discard after each patient use.”

“In other places they are taking them home, squirting it with bleach, hanging it up to dry and alternating them every other day,” he added.

Meanwhile, global supplies of the N-95 respirator mask have dwindled during the coronavirus pandemic as health workers and members of the public around the world have rushed to stock up. Hospitals have been unable to fill orders of new masks as a result. 

The lack of proper protection may have untold knock-on effects on the country’s healthcare system if doctors are forced to quarantine because of contracting the virus. Dozens of healthcare workers have already been infected, according to some officials, and that number is likely to rise significantly.

The spread of the virus among medical professionals would impact not just coronavirus patients, but the entire system.

“If the healthcare workforce gets exposed and gets sick because we don’t have the right protection, who’s going to take care of the sick people?” asked Dr. Cirillo.

The shortages have forced doctors and nurses to rally on social media to make desperate pleas for more personal protection equipment [PPE], using the hashtag #getmePPE.

The Trump administration announced this week that it was releasing some five million masks from military stockpiles to meet increased demand — one million of which will be available immediately.

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