I had a message to share': New Orleans nurse rebuked by Trump stands by PPE shortages comments

Posted over 5 years ago by Meredith Roberts

This week Sophia Thomas, Nurse Practitioner was criticised by President Donald Trump when she mentioned that many medical workers were still struggling with access to personal protective equipment on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic noting it had been “sporadic” in some communities across the U.S. but she stood by her comments. She also mentioned she had been using the same protective mask “for a few weeks now” while treating patients with the highly contagious novel coronavirus, including a 4-day-old infant, and shared her deep concern regarding the pandemic’s disproportionate death toll in the black community.

She is not the only one concerned with President Trump's handling of the pandemic. Earlier this week a new coalition of republicans called "The Lincoln" Project released The Mourning Project noting Trumps's slow response to the pandemic, and that recent legislation aiding large corporations, bailing out Wall Street more than Main Street. This is a concern shared by our own legislators such as Senator Sanders who notes:

The Senate passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act on March 25, 2020, the third emergency funding bill to be signed into law in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. While I voted in favor of this bill, this is by no means the bill I would have written, nor do I think it is the bill that most Americans would have written. While many provisions in the CARES Act will provide relief to Vermonters and help our country’s economy, one-quarter of the funding in this bill is still going to large corporations, with very little accountability.

The CARES Act did include some important first steps to increase access to medical supplies. The bill included $16 billion to replenish the Strategic National Stockpile supplies of personal protective equipment, pharmaceuticals, and other medical supplies as well as $1 billion to increase manufacturing of medical supplies through the Defense Production Act so our country's manufacturers can play a critical role in getting urgently needed supplies, like masks and ventilators, for our front line health care workers and patients. The bill also provided funding for state and local police departments, prisons, first responders, the VA, and local governments to purchase personal protective equipment.