Hospitals and DIY PPE

Re “‘It’s like a pressure cooker,’ ” April 4

It is terrible enough that our nation’s healthcare professionals are not being provided the personal protective equipment, or PPE, that they need in order to safely perform their critical jobs during this pandemic.

Worse, however, is that some hospitals are threatening to discipline employees for bringing their own masks to work, because the hospitals are concerned about how this could make them look bad.

I ask you, what would make a hospital look worse? Images of healthcare workers donning personal protective equipment that they scrambled to purchase on their own dime, or images of those same healthcare workers being placed on ventilators or into body bags? Howard Chernin

Encino

Yes, we’re in a serious crisis. But is it really necessary to put the most negative spin possible on every story?

This article starts by describing how healthcare workers in Southern California are “struggling” in a “pressure cooker” environment. Then we find out they’re in a “lull leaving ominously empty wards,” and that “emergency rooms are not as crowded” as they normally are. Instead, everyone is “looking at each other, we’re just waiting.”

Isn’t it good news that the growth in COVID-19 cases has not been overwhelming our hospitals (at least yet)?

Certainly we can elaborate on expert projections, but what we really have right now is less stress on the system than it is capable of handling. Todd Maddison

Oceanside