A doctor’s plea
Re “Doctors, nurses uneasy as battle looms,” March 21
Can you imagine a soldier with no helmet, flak jacket or ammunition being ordered to fight for our country?
I am an emergency physician in Los Angeles, and our government has failed us on so many levels in the COVID-19 pandemic. Nationwide, healthcare workers are running out of masks, gowns, disinfectant wipes and face shields. Most recently, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggested that if healthcare workers run out of supplies, we could use bandanas and scarves to protect ourselves.
As healthcare workers, we know the enormity of what is ahead of us. We are going to do whatever it takes to save as many people as we can, even if we are armed only with bandanas and scarves.
I urge everyone to write or call their elected leaders. We are in a war, and we need more than bandanas and scarves to fight this war. We need to ramp up production now and use all the resources we have.
We also need everyone who can do so to stay home so that we have a fighting chance to save lives. I know it’s inconvenient. I know it may be depressing. For many, it may even mean bankruptcy. But for those of you who end up in the hospital, it will literally be the difference between life and death.
This is the only bullet we have right now against this virus. We lost the opportunity to contain this when we had a chance two months ago. Maximillian Yang, MD
Torrance
I am a nurse practitioner who must watch the heroism of my fellow nurses from a distance as I shelter in place.
President Trump ignored the credible warnings that this would be the worst pandemic of our lifetime. Dr. Larry Brilliant, the epidemiologist who helped eradicate smallpox, has called what Trump has done “the most irresponsible act of an elected official that I have seen.”
The scores of illnesses and deaths and the economic damage caused by COVID-19 could have been averted had we been prepared.
Many years ago, upon hearing of the egregious acts committed by a corrupt Chicago politician, my father-in-law’s response was, “Throw the bum out.” These are words to remember in November. Jacqueline Ficht
South Pasadena
I recently received a text message from my daughter, a resident in a major academic medical center in New York. She was desperate for a thermometer for personal use and for protective masks.
She stated that the emergency physicians were issued one N95 mask every two weeks, and that she had contact with two proven COVID-infected colleagues but was still expected to work.
She was given instructions about how to sew her own mask.
With per-capita healthcare spending higher in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world, one wonders why the very people essential for healthcare delivery are the most at risk for lack of protection, promising to transform this pandemic into a mass tragedy. Singapore and South Korea were able to contain the virus with per-capita testing rates up to 100 times that of the United States.
Whoever is elected president next will need to completely revamp the U.S. healthcare system and determine why so much money does so little in a crisis of this magnitude. Jonathan D. Kaunitz, MD
Santa Monica
As a layperson, I have only a few simple, humble words to those brave people at the front lines of this insidious and unseen threat:
We thank you for your selfless sacrifice and will owe you more than we can ever repay. William W. Carter
Newbury Park