Care workers, Casey press feds for equipment
The need for masks, gowns and other personal protective equipment for Pennsylvania’s caregivers is so immediate that workers and organizations have had to “get creative” in recent days to help protect them from COVID-19, they said Monday.
The Pennsylvania Healthcare Association, advocating on behalf of a group of several hundred long-term care and senior service providers, has been reaching out to dentists, grocers and builders — among other groups — to corral protective equipment and has urged volunteers to weave handmade masks.
One nursing home worker in northeastern Pennsylvania — who provides care at a facility where three of her colleagues have tested positive for COVID-19 — is relying on a handmade mask herself, sewn by the granddaughter of an elderly resident.
“That was the first mask I received,” said the worker, who identified herself only as “Donna” out of concern for her employment and privacy. Her employer gave workers single-use paper masks, which some have worn for an entire week, she said.
Stories like these have led employees and union officials — as well as U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa. — to urge the federal government to streamline the distribution of masks, gowns, gloves and other equipment to the front-line workers who give personalized treatment.
The Trump administration can do that, they said, by facilitating the transfer of equipment from other industries, demanding the production of new equipment and distributing the equipment that’s already in the Strategic National Stockpile.
Fully authorizing the Defense Production Act to compel companies to manufacture these supplies should be one of the president’s top priorities, they said. Mr. Trump invoked the act recently to order General Motors to start manufacturing ventilators but has continued to say he’s reluctant to use the act further because companies are already doing what he wants them to do, according to The Associated Press.
“We need to continue to urge the president and his administration to fully operationalize the Defense Production Act so there’s no question the federal government is, if necessary, directing companies ... and manufacturers to be producing the personal protective equipment, ventilators or anything else we need,” Mr. Casey said, adding that he thinks the federal government is lagging on the issue.
The supplies shouldn’t just go to hospitals, they said, because people living in personal care homes and assisted living residences — mostly elderly and immunocompromised and thus those more susceptible to contracting the virus — will eventually flood the ER and ICU beds anyway if there’s an outbreak in a facility and workers aren’t equipped with the protective gear they need.
Workers, their families and the community at large should not be tasked with gathering the equipment needed to protect those on the front line, they said.
But in many cases, the community has answered the call. Darrin Kelly, president of the Allegheny-Fayette Central Labor Council, said the building trades in Western Pennsylvania have “stepped up” to address the shortage of protective equipment.
“It’s a true testament to what type of people we are here,” Mr. Kelly said.
Mr. Casey said it’s “not clear yet” if the federal government is willing to step up itself and commit to protecting workers like Donna and Crystal Patterson, a home care attendant in Washington County who said Monday she’s worried about infecting her patient and her son.
Ms. Patterson cares for a client who is bed-bound and who will require treatment in-home if he catches the virus. She relies on public transportation to get to work, she said, and is concerned she’ll pick up COVID-19. If she does, she might not know until she’s already spread it.
Donna, the nursing home caregiver in northeastern Pennsylvania, said the guidelines from her employer are changing, too. At first, employees who had any exposure to COVID-19 were required to self-quarantine for 14 days. Now, if they’ve had minimal or moderate exposure, they can continue to go to work but have to wear a mask, she said.
“I did sign up to care for the sick,” Donna said. “What I didn’t sign up for was to run into a pandemic without the proper protection. The government needs to protect us. We are the ones fighting this war.
“We don’t need this equipment today,” she added. “We needed it weeks ago.”