More PPE needed to keep workers safe

The toll of COVID-19 on health care workers, particularly Filipino Americans (“A deadly trend: Filipino American nurses in California are dying at alarming rates, making up more than two-thirds of deaths in the profession from COVID19,” Oct. 4) and other workers of color, is horrific.

Of the over 17,000 COVID-19 deaths in California, more than a third were residents and staff in nursing homes, and a severe and ongoing shortage of personal protective equipment in California and nationwide is making things worse.

Nursing homes need a steady supply of PPE to stop COVID-19 from spreading among residents, workers and their families. While you might think we’d have solved shortages early in the pandemic, a new report from CALPIRG found that shortages of PPE in nursing homes continued to escalate late into the summer as states reopened and case numbers rose. Our elected leaders must act to increase the production and streamline the distribution of PPE. Only then can we feel confident that our most vulnerable Americans and the health care heroes who care for them are safe.

— Claudia Deeg, Albany