Increasingly desperate pleas from health care workers and public authorities for donations of face masks and other protective gear are an unsettling sign of just how unprepared American hospitals are for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Alison Cooke, assistant chief of hospital medicine for Kaiser Permanente-San Francisco, warned recently that her institution had less than a week's supply of medical masks for doctors and nurses. "If you have any masks or safety goggles at home, please consider giving them to your nurse and doctor neighbors," she wrote on the neighborhood social networking site Nextdoor.
On Friday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo urged nonessential medical offices and other businesses to donate their protective gear to hospitals. And former federal health official Andy Slavitt tweeted a request to dentists, painters, contractors and plastic surgeons, to give "all you have" in the way of masks, gloves or thermometers to local hospitals.
As supplies of critical protective gear dwindle, nurses and doctors are wiping down and reusing supplies they'd normally toss after one use. On social media, health workers beg for supplies under the hashtag #GetMePPE, using the medical profession's abbreviation for "personal protective equipment."
Officials are releasing personal protective equipment from the Strategic National Stockpile, and manufacturers such as Honeywell and 3M have boosted production of critical medical supplies.
But for now, that's not enough. So charities, corporations and ordinary Americans are stepping up, donating everything from N95 masks to hospital gowns, disinfectant wipes and hand sanitizer.
If you want to help, here are some answers to questions you might have.
