AN ‘OUTRAGEOUS’ SMEAR ON MEDICS

Gov, Blaz defend hosp heroes who Don calls crooks

Local officials and medical professionals slammed President Trump for implying that New York urgently needs face masks to battle coronavirus because health care workers might be stealing or hoarding supplies.

“He needs to come to New York. He needs to walk a day in our shoes,” said Pat Kane, head of the New York State Nurses Association. “He needs to come here and tell me about pilfering.”

Two of three union members reported having inadequate personal protective equipment like masks to guard themselves against contracting coronavirus while treating patients, according to internal New York State Nurses Association surveys.

But Trump still suggested foul play was to blame after a manufacturer said during a briefing at the White House that an unnamed New York hospital’s mask usage had increased more than tenfold since the outbreak began.

“Something is going on. And you ought to look into it as reporters,” the president said during the bizarre rant on Sunday. “Where are the masks going? Are they going out of the back door? How do you go from 10,000 to 300,000 [masks used per week], and we have that in a lot of different places.”

“They have to look at that in New York,” Trump added.

Mayor de Blasio and Gov. Cuomo said the accusation was unfounded.

“It’s insulting, it’s outrageous, it’s incredibly insensitive to people who right now are giving their all,” de Blasio said on NY1 Monday morning. “They’re literally watching some of their own lost to this disease … trying to make sure they have basic protection so they can go to their families. … I don’t know what the president’s talking about.”

Cuomo said he didn’t know what exactly Trump was trying to say, either. “If he wants to make an accusation, then let him make an accusation,” he said at a briefing Monday.

The governor added that the state is creating a stockpile of medical supplies for New York City at a warehouse in Edison, N.J., and that officials were preparing for the high point of the crisis.

“For someone to say, well, the warehouse has equipment in it, you should be using that equipment today

— that defies the basic concept of planning,” Cuomo said. “It is a fundamental blunder to only prepare for today. That’s why in some ways we are where we are. We’ve been behind this virus from day one.”

The head of the state’s nurses union said supplies have been “locked up” for at least two weeks and blasted the industry leaders for haggling with the federal government over what they’d be paid for their services.

“We are out there and we are unarmed,” said Kane, who had just told the Daily News that she learned of two more nurses succumbing to coronavirus. “For the busi