Coronavirus
 

Medical personnel protest in Mexico City.
Health care workers across Mexico protest shortages of supplies, staff
From Mexico City to Yucatán, doctors and nurses are demanding face masks, gowns and gloves
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Published on Friday, March 27, 2020
• Full coronavirus coverage here

Public health care workers are continuing to protest a lack of equipment and supplies to treat patients with Covid-19.

Workers at the Mexican Social Security Institute’s (IMSS) La Raza National Medical Center in Mexico City protested on Friday to demand personal protective equipment (PPE) such as face masks, gowns and gloves as well as medications and medical supplies. The workers, who also protested last Friday, began blocking three of the four lanes of a busy road outside the hospital just before noon.

One nurse told the newspaper Reforma that the health care personnel at the IMSS facility have to purchase their own masks to protect themselves while working.

One male nurse who was taking care of patients with Covid-19 caught the disease himself and is now in the hospital, the workers said. They also said that the hospital needs more staff in order to guarantee care during the growing coronavirus outbreak.

In addition, the workers are calling for bonus pay due to the risk of being exposed to Covid-19 in their jobs.

A protest by interns in Michoacán.

Health care workers in other parts of the country have also protested a lack of PPE and supplies this week.

IMSS and State Workers’ Social Security Institute medical personnel in Yucatán protested in the state capital Mérida Thursday and Friday to demand items including face masks and gowns. IMSS health care workers in the Yucatán municipality of Umán also stopped work this week to protest a lack of equipment and supplies, the news website Noticaribe reported.

IMSS workers at the No. 2 clinic in Saltillo, Coahuila, also protested due to a lack of N95 surgical masks, while 400 medical interns in Michoacán stopped work, claiming they don’t have sufficient PPE to work safely amid the coronavirus pandemic.

IMSS doctors and nurses also protested on Friday in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, and Cuernavaca, Morelos.

Workers in the former city said that they are “completely exposed” to Covid-19 because they don’t have sufficient personal protective equipment. They also said that there is insufficient space in the medical facilities in which they work to isolate patients with Covid-19.

“We’re not refusing to work, we’re not afraid of treating the patients but the truth is that there is a serious risk if we don’t have adequate protection,” one Ciudad Victoria doctor told the news website La Silla Rota.

IMSS workers in Cuernavaca who protested by blocking a road that connects with the Mexico City-Acapulco highway echoed the sentiment.

“All we’re asking for is that they give us the necessary supplies, N95 masks and gowns,” said one nurse.

The protests by IMSS workers – there have been more than 20, according to one IMSS official – have continued despite director Zoé Robledo stating on Tuesday that medical personnel would be supplied this week with the equipment and supplies required to treat Covid-19 patients.

In a video message directed to IMSS workers, Robledo acknowledged that there have been shortages and said their claims were legitimate.


“You are the first people we have to look after in the pandemic,” he said. The IMSS director said that the institute is working with the Finance Ministry to make the required purchases.

Robledo also said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is supporting the process to purchase equipment and supplies from China, the source of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Protesting IMSS workers in Cuernavaca.

Another medical facility that is facing the spread of Covid-19 without being well prepared to do so is the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases (INER) in Mexico City, which has been designated as a frontline hospital for the treatment of coronavirus patients.

An INER report in April 2019 described equipment and facilities at the hospital as “obsolete” and said that significant investment is needed to bring the facility up to standard. INER also told the Health Ministry that “complex procedures” to purchase supplies and contract services needed to be urgently eliminated and that additional staff, especially nurses, were required to ensure the hospital could operate adequately in all of its different areas.

However, medical and administrative personnel at INER told the newspaper El Financiero that federal health authorities failed to respond to the requests made last year.

One man who suspected that he had been infected with coronavirus said that he was told at INER earlier this month that the hospital wasn’t testing for the disease.

The federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has been both praised and criticized, and some doctors and scientists have said that Mexico could end up in a situation like Italy, where there were more than 85,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 as of Friday and more than 9,000 coronavirus-related deaths.

Mexico added 110 new cases on Thursday and at least 11 people with Covid-19 have died.

Source: Reforma (sp), La Jornada (sp), El Universal (sp), El Financiero (sp), Noticaribe (sp), Vanguardia (sp), La Silla Rota (sp)

Coronavirus Protests: Amazon Workers To Demonstrate At New York Location Over Lack Of Protection Against Virus
By Wesley Dockery
03/29/20 IBT

Amazon workers at the e-commerce company’s warehouse in Staten Island, New York, are planning a protest Monday due to a lack of protections against the coronavirus, CNBC reported Sunday. An employee recently tested positive for the virus at the facility, also known as JFK8, causing workers' concerns at the warehouse.

Nearly 100 workers intend to stop working Monday to urge Amazon to close the warehouse for cleaning. The aggrieved workers want the company to then pay them while the facility is being sanitized.

“Since the building won’t close by itself, we’re going to have to force [Amazon’s] hand,” Chris Smalls, the lead organizer of the strike told CNBC. “We will not return until the building gets sanitized.”

The facility remains open, with a Amazon spokesperson telling CNBC that the health and safety of workers is “top priority.” The company has supposedly increased cleanings at its facilities and said that any worker at the Staten Island warehouse who came in contact with the infected employee can stay at home for two weeks with pay.

The coronavirus has caused workers to demonstrate in various industries. A group of Instacart shoppers are planning a nationwide strike on Monday, as the grocery delivery app faces surging demand due to the coronavirus. The shoppers claim that the company is not doing enough to protect the workers against the virus by not providing them with hand sanitizer or masks.

Nurses at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx have also held a press conference on Saturday morning to protest the lack of medical supplies there. The healthcare workers claim that the hospital is asking them to reuse protective gear when treating patients who have coronavirus.

The coronavirus has caused shortages of medical equipment, with states asking for the federal government for extra supplies. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, for example, has asked for 30,000 ventilators from the federal government, which will be needed when New York faces a peak of coronavirus cases in about three weeks.

NYC MAP: Coronavirus hits city’s poor neighborhoods the hardest
COVID-19 BIOWEAPON IN THE CLASS WAR
By DAVE GOLDINER
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
MAR 28, 2020
We have lifted the paywall on this story. To support essential reporting


A city map suggests the biggest share of people testing positive for the deadly virus are in a swathe of the city’s poorer neighborhood which stretches in a boomerang-shape from central Brooklyn through Queens and out to the Rockaways.(Obtained by Daily News)
A city map suggests what many New Yorkers already suspected: Coronavirus is hitting the poorest neighborhoods hardest.

The map shows the biggest share of people testing positive for the deadly virus are in a swathe of the city’s poorer neighborhoods, which stretches in a boomerang shape from central Brooklyn through Queens and out to the Rockaways.

A chunk of the South Bronx is also being slammed with more than half the patients testing positive.

Well-heeled neighborhoods like Riverdale, Bayside, Bay Ridge and most of Manhattan are faring relatively much better, with less than 40% testing positive for COVID-19.

Anti-poverty advocates say that the findings likely reflect the fact that poor and working-class people have been far less able to abide by social-distancing rules.

They are also less likely to have jobs that allow them to work remotely like better-off New Yorkers.

The map was released by the city after Mayor Bill de Blasio was hit with questions about why the nation’s hardest-hit city has so few resources documenting the impact of the virus.

Despite its important broad-brush conclusions, the map was criticized by some for its confusing metrics. The city’s Department of Health created the map using United Hospital Fund Neighborhood boundaries, which cut across large chunks of boroughs and may combine adjacent neighborhoods with dramatically different demographics.

Neighborhood activists are demanding much more granular figures to help New Yorkers figure out how the pandemic has affected their blocks and immediate neighborhoods.


Living 20 To A Room, NYC Homeless Face High Risk Of Coronavirus In Congregate Shelters
BY MIRELA IVERAC MARCH 29, 2020

The Bedford Armory Shelter in Brooklyn KEN FICARA / FLICKR
Bernard Ward was so worried about the state of the homeless shelter he was living in during the COVID-19 outbreak that he began to clean it himself.

“I was cleaning the dining hall after the meal was over,” the 61-year-old said. “I was taking out the garbage. I was mopping, sweeping for the safety of everybody.”

Ward was staying in one of around 100 “congregate” shelters in the city -- facilities where residents share rooms and eat meals in communal areas. Residents of such shelters are considered particularly vulnerable to the new coronavirus because they live in such close quarters with one another. 

“You actually got people that are sick,” said Ward, who shared a room with 20 other homeless individuals in Brooklyn. “They're coughing. They’re not covering their mouths.”

City officials reported Friday that a second homeless person has died from COVID-19, while the total number of cases in the shelter system increased from 17 to 59 over the past week. Only one unsheltered homeless person has been found to test positive for the virus, though far fewer individuals live on the streets in New York City than in shelters.

In a meeting with the shelter’s director and staff, Ward even asked if residents could get gloves and masks.

“They just said it wasn’t in the budget,” he said. “After they said that, I had to shut my mouth because now I know they don't care.”

Isaac McGinn, a spokesman for the city’s Social Services Department, said masks are provided only for symptomatic clients because that’s what health experts recommend. He also said shelters are being comprehensively cleaned.

Ward moved out of the shelter this week when he got his own room.

“I'm happy that I'm out,” he said. “But what about the ones who are still there?”

Listen to Mirela Iverac's radio story for WNYC:

Dr. Kelly Doran, an assistant professor of emergency medicine and population health at NYU Langone Health who studies homelessness, said she worries the most about people in congregate shelters.

“This is a vulnerable, very vulnerable population,” Dr. Doran said. “They're disproportionately older. And we know that people who are homeless in their 50s are essentially health-wise equivalent to people who aren't homeless in their 80s.”

Doran thinks the city should find other accommodations for homeless people who are at higher risk to protect them.

“I worry a little bit that in some ways we've already missed the boat in New York City,” she said.

On average, 8 to 12 people sleep in a room in a congregate shelter. Victoria Wolf, 66, shares a room in a Brooklyn shelter with half a dozen people, but says it’s still impossible to stay six feet away from other residents, especially during meals.

“I try to maintain my distance from people when I'm on the food line, but other people just get right up on you,” she said.

Wolf said she wishes the city was doing more to protect her and other residents.

“You feel like a second- and third-class citizen,” she said. “You're at the bottom of the societal life ladder. And it's almost as if it doesn't really matter if you got sick or not.”

GENERAL STRIKE AGAINST COVID19
Nurses at Bronx hospital protest lack of supplies, protective gear to fight coronavirus
ONLY WORKERS CONTROL OF PRODUCTION CAN DEFEAT COVID-19 
SOCIALISM, SELF MANAGEMENT, COLLECTIVIZATION, SOCIAL PLANNING
By THOMAS TRACY
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
MAR 28, 2020
We have lifted the paywall on this story. To support essential reporting

A nurse demonstrates along with others outside the emergency entrance to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx on March 28, 2020, where some nurses say they don't have enough personal protective equipment and have forced to reuse theirs to treat coronavirus patients. According to statistics, New York is currently the global epicenter of the virus with more cases than any other location. The United States surpassed China in the number of cases earlier in the week according to Johns Hopkins University which is tracking cases of COVID-19.(Kathy Willens/AP)
Nurses at a Bronx hospital pleaded Saturday for more protective gear while treating coronavirus patients, blasting official claims that there were enough supplies for healthcare workers.

Two nurses at Jacobi Medical Center have now contracted the illness because of a lack of equipment, they said.

“We have a number of workers — two in this hospital, two nurses — fighting for their lives in the ICUs right now,” pediatric nurse Sean Petty said at a news conference outside the hospital Saturday.

Petty and others criticized Mayor de Blasio’s claims that there were enough masks and gowns to protect medical professionals for at least the next week.

A nurse stands outside the emergency entrance to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx borough of New York, Saturday, March 28, 2020, as she demonstrates with members of the New York Nursing Association in support of obtaining an adequate supply of personal protective equipment for nurses coming in contact with coronavirus patients. A member of the New York nursing community died earlier in the week at another New York hospital. The city leads the nation in the number of coronavirus cases. Nurses say they are having to reuse their equipment endangering patients and themselves. (Kathy Willens/AP)

Nurses at Jacobi Medical Center said there are so few supplies that they’ve had to ration the protective gear, forcing them to wear N95 masks longer than they should, or wear surgical masks on top of the N95 masks to preserve them.

“We will not let any health official or government official say that we have enough until every health care worker has an N95 for every time they interact with a COVID-19 patient," Petty said.

Several nurses have fallen ill across New York metropolitan region. Mount Sinai West assistant nursing manager Kious Kelly, 36, died from the disease earlier this week.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city delivered 200,000 N95 masks to hospitals Friday, with 800,000 more to come Saturday along with loads of less-protective surgical masks and other gear.

Jacobi Healthcare Workers Demand More N95 Masks As Supplies Run Low

BY SYDNEY PEREIRA MARCH 29, 2020 

Healthcare staff hold a protest outside of Jacobi on March 28th. ANDY RATTO
PRACTICING SAFE DISTANCE NORMS

Healthcare workers at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx are demanding more personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 outbreak to protect themselves and others from the virus.

Staffers say they are required to use one N95 mask per week due to a nationwide shortage of the specific filtered masks.

"With coronavirus, we're primarily concerned with the degree to which we're infecting our other patients, our other coworkers, and our own families," Sean Petty, a nurse at Jacobi, told Gothamist.

About two dozen healthcare workers protested outside of Jacobi on Saturday, demanding more PPE. Petty said the Trump administration should use the Defense Protection Act to ramp up production of the masks as quickly as possible.

"If in 1940, we could completely restructure the entire country to make weapons to fight in a war, then we could have the ability to restructure a couple factories to double or triple their N95 production," Petty said. "As of last week, that policy became one mask per week for nurses outside of the emergency department. That change is what I think really horrified us."


Last week, a worker at a hospital where nurses were wearing trash bags as protective gowns died of the virus. Ventilators and hospital beds—which New York needs tens of thousands of—are critical, said Petty, but a third component is the workers treating patients. And without enough N95 masks, staffing could become an issue.

"The lack of PPE is working against flattening the curve," he said. "You're setting yourself up for a massive increase in a staffing crisis."

Previously, Petty said masks were to be used once with a patient. Now, staff is instructed to use one per week, and only wear it when performing a procedure that would produce airborne particles from a COVID-19 patient—like intubation or providing oxygen. Staff has been coached on how to wear surgical masks on top of N95s to extend their use.

A spokesperson for NYC Health + Hospitals, which operates Jacobi, said their network of hospitals have adequate supplies, but acknowledged a nationwide shortage.

"We currently have the supplies needed for all of our staff, but are fully cognizant that there is a nationwide shortage of supplies," the hospital system's spokesperson Karla Griffith said. "Because of the national picture, we have taken serious measures to conserve what we do have."

Nurses' safety during the coronavirus response is a "top priority" and all healthcare workers who need PPE are "able to receive what they need," but the city's hospital system is pushing local, state, and federal agencies for more equipment, the statement read.

The hospital system says it is following city and state health department guidelines, as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But Petty says the CDC guidelines aren't adequate. Under the CDC guidelines, updated February 29th, measures for reusing masks are recommended during N95 shortages.

"This is not just a Jacobi problem and it's not just even a public hospital problem," he said. "This is a nationwide problem that stems from the guidelines that the CDC implemented early on in this crisis."

"To reuse an N95 mask prior to this crisis would have been a fireable offense," Petty said. "This virus is exposing exactly where all the weak points are in our system. We are going to need fundamental and systemic change in the way we do healthcare in this country."

An emergency room doctor at a Mount Sinai hospital says staffers had previously been provided one N95 mask a week, but now switches it out daily and wears a surgical mask on top of it between patients. He cleans his plastic face shield with Clorox wipes. At a press conference on Friday, president of Health + Hospitals Mitchell Katz said that hospitals have enough supplies through April 5th, but said wearing a surgical mask on top of an N95 mask is recommended in light of the "short supply worldwide."

GENERAL STRIKE AGAINST COVID119
San Diego Hospital Workers Call For More Protective Equipment in Protest

The CDC's suggestions in times of N95 mask shortages include reusing N95 respirators for patients with COVID-19 and using N95 respirators beyond the manufacture-designated shelf life
ONLY WORKERS CONTROL OF PRODUCTION CAN DEFEAT COVID-19 
SOCIALISM, SELF MANAGEMENT, COLLECTIVIZATION, SOCIAL PLANNING

By Niala Charles • Published March 27, 2020 •

NBC 7’s Niala Charles spoke with some nurses who are protesting over the shortage of personal protective equipment

Some local healthcare workers walked out of their hospital on their lunch break to protest what they say is a lack of equipment meant to protect them while on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19.

Nurses with UC San Diego Health called on their hospital to provide the personal protective equipment (PPE) necessary to do their jobs safely while the novel coronavirus spreads through San Diego County.

“That’s my fear. I don’t want to get exposed. Then I’ll bring it to my family, the public, the community,” says Dahlia Tayag, a Nurse at UCSD Health Hillcrest.

Tayag stood beside some of her colleagues, six feet apart, with handmade face masks as they protested the lack of personal protective equipment at their hospital.

Until a couple of weeks ago, most nurses were given N95 respirators but that changed when the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) loosened its guidelines to citing the nationwide shortage.

The CDC created a checklist for hospitals to use in order to extend their N95 supply in "periods of expected or known N95 respirator shortages." Some of the suggestions include, reusing N95 respirators for patients with COVID-19, using N95 respirators beyond the manufacture-designated shelf life and prioritizing the use of N95 respirators by activity type.

At UC San Diego Health that means only staff in the Intensive Care Unit like Shannon Cotton are given respirators. All others are given respirators on a case-by-case basis.

“Honestly when I show up to work every day it’s very anxiety-provoking,” says Shannon Cotton, an ICU Nurse at UCSD Health Hillcrest.

UC San Diego Health reassures their staff that they have enough PPE.

"Currently, UC San Diego Health has sufficient supplies of personal protective equipment, including masks and respirators, to meet the needs for patients and health workers alike," the hospital said in a statement to NBC 7.

The hospital is accepting donated PPE equipment from the public but nurses at the protest said the hospital hasn’t distributed them.

“If nurses get sick that’s on them,” says Kennedy.

“We don’t want to lose any one of us. That would be really really heartbreaking,” says Tayag.

Some nurses say they have been threatened with disciplinary action for bringing in their own PPE.

In response to that UCSD Health says “Current masking guidelines at UC San Diego Health contain no reference to disciplinary action. Use is guided by what is deemed safe and appropriate in the clinical setting, and provides significant flexibility for assessing the needs of both patients and staff.”

Nurses say they haven’t received the additional equipment promised by the state and federal government.

County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher said at the county's daily news briefing on Friday more than 428,000 N95 masks have been secured in coordination with the state and federal governments.

Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) Medical Services Administrator Rob Sills, who is coordinating the county's emergency supply said he discusses the PPE supply with each of the county's emergency managers daily.

"I ask each of the command centers, their emergency managers, 'Do you have what you need?' 'Are you getting what you need?' and the answer is yes," Sills said Friday. "We push out the resources as we get them and, to date, we have not turned down any of those to any of our hospitals."

As coronavirus grows, Zimbabwe health care workers strike over vital equipment
ONLY WORKERS CONTROL OF PRODUCTION CAN DEFEAT COVID-19 

SOCIALISM, SELF MANAGEMENT, COLLECTIVIZATION, SOCIAL PLANNING


March 27, 2020 · By The World staff

A health worker screens and sanitises visitors to prevent the spread of

 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outside a hospital in Harare, Zimbabwe March 26, 2020.
Credit: Philimon Bulawayo/Reuter

Nurses and doctors are on strike in Zimbabwe. They say the government has failed to respond to their demands for personal protective equipment as they brace for a battle against the novel coronavirus.

Customs officials at the country's biggest airport have also stopped reporting for work, fearing exposure to the coronavirus and a lack of measures to prevent its spread, their union said.

"Our members think the government is not taking them seriously. We can't afford to lose nurses to this serious pandemic," said Enoch Dongo, secretary-general of the 18,000-member Zimbabwe Nurses Association.

Related: COVID-19: The latest from The World

The Zimbabwean government says there are five cases of the coronavirus in the country right now. A popular 30-year-old Zimbabwean broadcast journalist was the first to die from the disease — gripping the nation with grief and concern.

Zimbabwe will impose a nationwide lockdown for 21 days from Monday to help curb the spread of coronavirus, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said on Friday. Only state and health workers will be exempted.

Facing its worst economic crisis in a decade, Zimbabwe is grappling with soaring inflation and shortages of foreign currency and medicines that has crippled its hospitals. The country has begun receiving some of the protective and medical equipment donated to African countries by Chinese billionaire and Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma.

But health care workers' strikes are not new in the country. Dr. Fortune Nyamande is the chair of the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights. He says doctors and nurses have been striking for some five years as they are faced with insufficient resources to do their work — and the situation is only getting more and more complicated.

Related: Hong Kong epidemiologist warns pandemic's end may not be straightforward

"A doctor who is working in a government hospital in Zimbabwe is earning around $100 to $150 US dollars per month. A nurse is earning an equivalent of about $50 to $75 US dollars per month. So this is not enough to sustain their families," Nyamande said. "We have seen nurses going to work maybe three times a week where they do not have access to gloves, masks, sanitizers. The general infrastructure in the public hospitals across Zimbabwe is dilapidated and it's pathetic. So it's really a very complicated working environment for any health worker — doctors, nurses included — to discharge their duties effectively."

Nayamande spoke with The World's host Marco Werman about the longstanding pressures health care workers in Zimbabwe face, and the situation in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Marco Werman: When Zimbabwe's president was elected in 2018, it sparked protests across the country. What followed were reports of severe human rights violations, death, sexual violence by government forces. Your group, the Zimbabwean Association Doctors for Human Rights, advocates for the right to health for all Zimbabweans, including activists. Have you been personally targeted by the government?


Dr. Fortune Nyamande: Yes. It's a very sad situation for us, particularly myself as an individual and also our organization, [of] which I am the chairperson. We've been the subject of state brutality. We've been subject of attacks in the state-run media. We've been subject of ridicule, very serious threats by the president of the country, where he said that he is going to unleash the security forces to come on to us. And at times, we've even had to run away out of the country for the fear of our own lives. So it's very difficult to be a human rights doctor in Zimbabwe. But at the same time, we still find motivation in the work that we do. Because we support human rights defenders across the country so that they continue to advocate for just and political reforms in Zimbabwe.

Related: As it braces for coronavirus, Yemen offers lessons of survival for the world

Doctor, where are you counting on hope and support for Zimbabwe as the coronavirus situation there gets worse?

Zimbabwe has been a country which has been plagued by communicable diseases over quite a long period of time. We've had a cholera outbreak, we've had a devastating typhoid outbreak, and we've got also one of the highest prevalence of HIV in the world. We have some inbuilt resilience as a country in terms our well-trained health workers and also the health infrastructure to deal with a communicable disease. But maybe the main challenges now could be — with regards to the motivation of the doctors — the nurses, the doctors, they highlighted that they're not going to continue to [execute] their duties if they're not provided with personal protective equipment and we don't see this being solved anytime soon.

Related: Without support for India's poorest people, lockdown risks failure

That could be catastrophic.

Sure. Definitely. It could be catastrophic. ...The government and the international community, they should recognize that Zimbabwe — as much as it is not a country in war, but it is a country which I would describe as a fragile state. And it needs extensive support from development partners in the international community to avert a possible pandemic into disaster if COVID-19 happens to come into Zimbabwe at full scale.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Reuters contributed reporting.

GENERAL STRIKE AGAINST COVID19
Health care workers protest lack of equipment
ONLY WORKERS CONTROL OF PRODUCTION CAN DEFEAT COVID-19 
SOCIALISM, SELF MANAGEMENT, COLLECTIVIZATION, SOCIAL PLANNING

Audrey McNamara 3/28/2020

Health care workers are on the front lines of the battle against COVID-19, but many say they are not being supplied with adequate armor. Nurses across the country have begun to protest against shortages of personal protective equipment, PPE — masks, gloves and gowns — which they say are putting their lives at risk. 

DID NOT GET MUCH NEWS COVERAGE IN MSM 

Nurses, while following social distancing guidelines, staged protests in multiple states this week, according to National Nurses United President Deborah Burger. She said protests calling for more PPE took place in New York, Georgia, Illinois and several California cities throughout the week.

In New York, nurses say managers have been rationing PPE in anticipation of a peak in cases, expected to hit the city sometime in the next 21 days.

Kelley Cabrera, a registered nurse and president of the New York State Nurses Association's labor bargaining unit at New York's Jacobi Medical Center, said staff members at New York City hospitals have to reuse the same N95 mask — particle-filtering respirator masks — for five days. N95 masks are intended for one-time use, and are not to be used on multiple patients, according to Cabrera.

"These recommendations are based on CDC guidelines and are not based on science," Cabrera said. "But because our hospitals lack adequate supplies. This is a dangerous practice that puts healthcare workers and patients at risk."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides "strategies for optimizing the supply" of N95 respirators and face masks. During a crisis, when there are shortages, the agency says healthcare workers are allowed to reuse PPE when necessary. The CDC cautions, however, that since little is known about the coronavirus' transmission, "care should be taken to ensure that (workers) do not touch outer surfaces of the mask during care, and that mask removal and replacement be done in a careful and deliberate manner."

Burger said the CDC's guidance has been an "ever shifting position."

"It's a problem because nurses look to the CDC for protections, but we keep reminding them that the CDC guidelines are just that … employers can pick and choose," she said.

According to Burger, most nurses are being asked to reuse N95 masks for an entire shift, and to store them on a hook in a COVID-19 patient's room, rather than throw them away. This method is far from full-proof, she said, as severe patients are likely on ventilators, which can circulate the virus.

When face masks are not available, the CDC guidance says health care providers "might use homemade masks (e.g., bandana, scarf) for care of patients with COVID-19 as a last resort." According to Burger, hospitals "seized" on that guidance, and encouraged nurses to make their own masks, despite not having any evidence showing they protect from viruses. She called the direction the "height of irresponsibility," because it gives nurses a "false sense of security that they're being somehow protected."

The New York State Nurses Association has issued several position statements disagreeing with the CDC guidelines, and has drafted a protest of assignment form — a document notifying the employer that an assignment is unsafe — that is geared specifically towards COVID-19.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has stressed the state's continued need for ventilators — another key device in battling the coronavirus — but said Wednesday that any health care worker dealing with the outbreak should currently have access to PPE.

"Today, no hospital, no nurse, no doctor, can say legitimately 'I don't have protective equipment,'" Cuomo said. "Right now, and for the foreseeable future, we have a supply. We have not yet secured a supply for three weeks from now, four weeks from now, five weeks from now, but we are still shopping."

© Provided by CBS News OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 26: Alameda Health System nurses, doctors and workers practice social distancing during a protest in front of Highland Hospital on March 26, 2020 in Oakland, California. Dozens of health care workers with Alameda Health System staged a protest to demand better working conditions and that proper personal protective equipment be provided in the effort to slow the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).

The head of New York City's hospital system, Dr. Mitchell Katz, told NPR on Friday that the city only has enough PPE "to get through the rest of March." Katz said that in order to get through the next several weeks, the city's public hospital system will "need massive infusions of protective equipment and ventilators from the federal government and other providers."

At a news conference Friday, Katz said that health care workers treating only coronavirus patients could conserve supplies of N95 masks by wearing one throughout their shifts.

As of Friday, 48 California health care workers have tested positive for the virus through person-to-person transmission, according to the California Department of Public Health. New York has not publicly provided data on how many health care workers make up the over 52,000 people sickened from the virus. At least one health care worker in the state, a 36-year-old nursing manager at Mount Sinai West, died earlier this week after helping treat patients with coronavirus. The death toll in New York is over 500, according to Johns Hopkins University.

© Provided by CBS News OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 26: Alameda Health System nurses, doctors and workers hold signs during a protest in front of Highland Hospital on March 26, 2020 in Oakland, California. Dozens of health care workers with Alameda Health System staged a protest to demand better working conditions and that proper personal protective equipment be provided in the effort to slow the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).

"We need public support to help us demand further action from the federal government," Cabrera said. "We know there are several ways to ramp up production of PPE and ventilators, but the current administration refuses to use these powers, therefore leaving our frontline staff and patients at risk of infection and death."

Burger also called on the federal government to encourage private sector production of PPE. She said that, while she's trying not to make the issue political, "it's hard not to mention that the person in charge was not taking this seriously … when we could have done something serious."

"How is it that we can produce landfills worth of useless articles, yet we can't produce masks? Burger said. "That's a lie."

"People should be righteously angry that we don't have these stores in place."

Healthcare Workers in Vacaville Stage Protest Calling for Better Personal Protective Equipment

Storyful20 March 2020

Nurses at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Vacaville, California, staged a protest outside the facility on March 19, according to local reports, alleging Kaiser was exposing them to unnecessary risks during the spread of the coronavirus.

The protesters called for better personal protective equipment.

The San Francisco Examiner reported that one of the protesters said they were concerned about cross-contamination, but that Kaiser said it was following recommendations from the federal government. Credit: MsHazelGQ via Storyfu

COVID-19 VS THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

Spread of coronavirus accelerates in U.S. jails and prisons


By Ned Parker, Linda So, Brad Heath and Grant Smith 3/29/2020

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sean Hernandez says he covers his mouth and nose with a t-shirt or towel when he leaves his cell, the only defense he can improvise against the coronavirus outbreak now sweeping through New York’s Rikers Island jail system.

© Reuters/Andrew Kelly Outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York

Inmates have no access to gloves or proper masks and have only cold water to wash their hands, said Hernandez, who was convicted of attempted murder and has served eight years. He said inmates watched on Thursday as a guard coughed, her cheeks turned red and she collapsed to the ground.

“We are pleading with officers” for better defenses, he said. “They just shrug. In the end, we are just inmates, second-class citizens. We are like livestock.”

As of Saturday, at least 132 inmates and 104 staff at jails across New York City had tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. The virus appears to be spreading quickly through a jail system famous for its overcrowded cell blocks. The city’s Department of Correction said it is taking many measures to protect detainees, and declined to comment on Hernandez’s account of an infected guard collapsing.

Across the United States, jails and prisons are reporting an accelerating spread of the new disease, and they are taking a varied approach to protecting the inmates in their charge. Thousands of inmates are being released from detention, in some cases with little or no medical screening to determine if they may be infected by the coronavirus and at risk of spreading it into the community, Reuters found.

Since March 22, jails have reported 226 inmates and 131 staff with confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to a Reuters survey of cities and counties that run America’s 20 largest jails. The numbers are almost certainly an undercount given the fast spread of the virus. Hot spots include Cook County jail in Chicago, Illinois. Since the first case was confirmed there on Sunday, the virus has infected 89 inmates and nine staff. Test results are pending for 92 other detainees.


Inmate advocates, local officials and public defenders are urging jails and prisons to speed up the release of inmates. Jails typically hold people for relatively short periods as they await trial. They have more flexibility to reduce populations than state or federal prisons, whose inmates have been convicted and sentenced.

“We are nowhere close to the rate of release we need to see to stop the spread of COVID-19,” said Udi Ofer, director of the justice division at the American Civil Liberties Union. “Every day that government officials do not act is another day that lives are put at risk.”

Some groups are pushing back. Victims’ rights group Marsy's Law, named after the murdered sister of billionaire Henry Nicholas, has criticized the releases, saying victims of crimes should be notified before the people who committed them are let out -- a process that could delay releases of some inmates by weeks or months. However, officials supervising releases in New York, Los Angeles, Houston and other major cities say they are releasing only low-level, non-violent offenders.

New York City has freed about 450 inmates from its jails since last weekend as it scrambles to contain the virus, which has killed more than 28,300 people, including more than 2,050 in the United States.

The city’s independent oversight body for the jails, the Board of Correction, has identified around 2,000 people who could be released -- including inmates aged 50 and above, the infirm, nonviolent, low-level offenders or people jailed for parole violations. The city has declined to disclose the number of inmates it has tested for the virus.

On Friday, the New York state government identified 1,100 low-level parole violators for immediate release, including 400 in New York City jails. “Hundreds more will be released soon,” said Colby Hamilton, a spokesman for the mayor.

‘THERE IS NO PROTECTION’

The United States has more people behind bars than any other nation, a total incarcerated population of nearly 2.3 million as of 2017, including nearly 1.5 million in state and federal prisons and another 745,000 in local jails, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.

An inmate released on Monday from Rikers Island said sick and healthy people often mingled freely inside the jail. After a prisoner and a guard in his area of the jail were diagnosed with COVID-19, the inmate said he started spending more time in his two-man cell. But he still had to line up with other inmates at the medicine window to get his daily dose of methadone, a drug-addiction treatment.

“There is no protection,” said the 32-year-old inmate, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “You want to get away from people but you can’t.”

The New York City Department of Correction said it has taken measures to address the outbreak, including distributing masks to inmates in areas where someone tested positive for COVID-19, promoting distancing between inmates, cleaning cells and providing soap.

“The Department of Correction is doing everything we can to safely and humanely house people in our custody amid the broader COVID-19 crisis,” said Peter Thorne, the deputy commissioner of public information.

Some jails are releasing inmates who may be ill. In Marietta, Georgia, Aubrey Hardyway, 21, developed a cough, headache, sore throat and a 103-degree fever while held at the Cobb County Adult Detention Center on theft charges. “I just couldn’t take it, I was feeling terrible,” he said.

Four days after falling ill, Hardyway says he was tested for flu and strep throat. When both came back negative, he was taken to a nearby hospital for blood work and other tests. Hardyway says he was never told if he was tested for the coronavirus. A doctor urged deputies to quarantine Hardyway, he says, but he was released hours later after he returned to jail and his friends paid his bond.

Hardyway says he believes he might have exposed cellmates and guards who were in contact with him. At least one deputy has tested positive for the virus and a second has been quarantined after showing symptoms, according to two sources familiar with the jail’s operations.

The Cobb County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to requests for comment.

Jails report they are adopting different tactics to keep the virus out. Some screen new inmates before they're even booked, taking their temperatures inside police cruisers or garages. Some are quarantining new arrivals until they are medically cleared to join the general population. Some are doing nothing.

Federal prison guards have asked for permission to wear masks on duty, though the Bureau of Prisons had so far declined, said Sandy Parr, a vice president of the union that represents federal prison workers. The Bureau of Prisons did not respond to a request for comment. Fourteen federal inmates and 13 staff have tested positive for the virus, the bureau said on its website.

A pandemic could be “very dangerous for our inmate population,” Parr said.

Some courts are beginning to agree: A federal judge late on Thursday ordered federal authorities to immediately release 10 people who were being held in county jails in New Jersey while their immigration cases were being heard. U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres ruled that each detainee “faces an imminent risk of death or serious injury in immigration detention” because of the outbreak.

THOUSANDS BEING RELEASED

Inmate releases are being driven by judges, public defenders, prosecutors and occasional orders by political leaders. New Jersey’s chief justice ordered the release of 1,000 jail inmates statewide at the start of the week, seeking to prevent deaths behind bars.

Los Angeles County has released at least 1,700 inmates who had sentences with less than 30 days left. In California’s Santa Clara County, authorities cut the inmate population by at least 400 by releasing some people, delaying sentences and other steps. Harris County, Texas, which includes Houston, has cut its jail population by at least 500.

In some counties, police are issuing citations for low-level crimes instead of arresting people. Furloughing work-release prisoners is another strategy to try to limit spread of the virus in crowded and often-unsanitary facilities, where the quality of medical care varies dramatically. Some worry the churn of detainees — coupled with the constant shuffle of officers coming from outside — will spread the illness across jails and communities.

Among a dozen large U.S. jails surveyed by Reuters, there was no uniform approach to preventing an infected inmate from spreading the coronavirus into a community.

Some jurisdictions screened inmates before letting them out. Others, such as King County Correctional Facility in Washington, did not.

“At this time, there is no enhanced screening of inmates occurring at release unless there is some type of pre-existing medical or psychiatric issue,” said Captain David Weirich of the King County Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention, where at least one correctional officer has tested positive for the coronavirus according to the county.

In Ohio, the Hamilton County Justice Center is checking the temperature of all released inmates before they leave. At the John E. Polk Correctional Facility in Seminole, Florida, if an inmate shows any signs of illness, they’re referred to an outside medical provider. Other jails are offering literature on COVID-19 to exiting inmates.

Inmates in federal prisons said some religious services have been cancelled, along with education programs and most visits.

“If the virus gets in here, and we are all expecting it to, we are doomed,” said Steven Jones, a 55-year-old inmate at a federal prison in Littleton, Colorado.

(Ned Parker and Grant Smith reported from New York. Linda So and Brad Heath reported from Washington. Additional reporting by Peter Eisler, Beatrix Lockwood and Karen Freifeld. Editing by Jason Szep)

Manhattan judge rules 16 'vulnerable’ city inmates will be released due to coronavirus concerns on Rikers Island

A Manhattan judge ordered the release of 16 city inmates because the prisoners are particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus outbreak currently plaguing Rikers Island.

INNOCENT TILL PROVEN GUILTY SHOULD NOT BE A DEATH SENTENCE IN A HOLDING CELL

© Bebeto Matthews

Supreme Court Judge Mark Dwyer issued the ruling Thursday after the Legal Aid Society filed a petition to get 32 detainees awaiting trial inside the sprawling city jail turned loose amid the pandemic.

"This ruling is a substantial step forward towards getting our clients off Rikers Island, out of harm’s way, and back home with their families,” said Corey Stoughton, who runs the Special Litigation Unit at the Legal Aid Society. "New York City’s jails have now emerged as the epicenter in the United States for COVID-19 ... We will not quit until all of our clients are safety released from custody.”

The rate of infection inside city jails is more than seven times that of New York City overall. 

As of Thursday evening ,73 inmates in the total city jail population of 5,169 people in city custody had tested positive for COVID-19. Fifty-eight Department of Correction employees had also tested positive for the disease.

The public defense organization’s petition argued that continuing to hold the defendants on RIkers Island on bail “constitutes deliberate indifference to the risk of serious medical harm."

Dwyer ruled that Legal Aid could renew its application for nine more of the inmates, and rejected the applications of eight others.

The dire situation inside the city’s jails led Mayor de Blasio to announce that he was working to release nearly 400 detainees at high risk of contracting coronavirus.

Biden, Sanders Demand Freeze on Rent Payments, Evictions Across U.S

Benjamin Fearnow 3/28/2020 NEWSWEEK 

Democratic presidential candidates Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders joined state lawmakers in New York and California in calls to freeze and forgive rent payments, as millions of Americans struggle to make ends meet under coronavirus lockdown.

Sanders and Biden followed several state-level Democrats in demanding a 90-day or three-month moratorium in tenants paying rent to landlords. After nationwide U.S. confirmed cases of coronavirus surpassed 100,000 Friday, Biden concurred with California Governor Gavin Newsom's executive order protecting renters from eviction as a direct result of medical or employment issues tied to COVID-19. 

Sanders offered his support on Saturday to New York State Senator Mike Gianaris, who is leading "#CancelRent" calls, and who proposed Senate Bill 8125A Friday to suspend rent payments for small businesses and tenants who've either had their paychecks eliminated or reduced by the coronavirus quarantine.

Gianaris told Newsweek Saturday the logic of his legislative proposal is simple: how can renters be expected to pay rent when the government has -- with good reason -- suspended their employment?

"Let's start from the bottom-up and protect tenants whose job was taken from them by an act of the government, and whose most pressing financial obligation for the 90-day period is paying rent," Gianaris told Newsweek by phone Saturday afternoon. "[The federal bailout] supports the big boys -- airlines, banks - but we should provide help for small businesses and lower income tenants to soften the landing at end of the crisis."

Sanders, the progressive Vermont senator agreed Saturday on Twitter: "Along with pausing mortgage payments, evictions, and utility shutoffs, we must place a moratorium on rent payments, especially in states hardest-hit by the coronavirus like New York. We must build on the important work @sengianaris and others are doing to make this happen."

Along with pausing mortgage payments, evictions, and utility shutoffs, we must place a moratorium on rent payments, especially in states hardest-hit by the coronavirus like New York. We must build on the important work @sengianaris and others are doing to make this happen. https://t.co/FKDbZYk4Pp— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 28, 2020

Speaking Friday night at a CNN town hall, Biden said of rent payments, "Freeze it and forgive it so that you're able to stay in that place ... There should be a rent freeze. No one should be evicted during this period -- period." The vice president added that stipulations would include helping small businesses and targeting people whose income is below $75,000.

With the first of the month looming for April, California Governor Newsom on Friday ordered a moratorium on evictions through the end of May for people hit by job loss, furlough, loss of hours, sick leave or medical expenses. Under the California stipulations, tenants must notify landlords within seven days of failure to make a rent payment and must provide documentation from a doctor or employer regarding their circumstances.

Gianaris, who represents the 12th district spanning Queens, New York, received Sanders' support Saturday as he hopes to push Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Assembly to expand homeowner and mortgage protections to renters. Cuomo's plan unveiled last week would seek to relieve COVID-19-related economic hardship for homeowners in New York by ensuring that a failure to pay mortgages would not hurt credit reports -- but that doesn't currently extend to renters.

© DREW ANGERER / Staff/Getty Images Democratic presidential candidates Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders joined state lawmakers in New York and California in freezing and forgiving rent payments as millions of Americans struggle to make ends meet under coronavirus lockdown.

"The need to #CancelRent for 90 days cannot be overstated. Over the past ten days I've heard countless stories of tenants in distress and one basic fact remains: People CANNOT pay rent if they don't have a paycheck," Gianaris tweeted Thursday. "We are not moving fast enough. We must #CancelRent and provide other relief ASAP."

Critics of the federal government's massive $2 trillion-plus stimulus plan have referred to the direct deposit of around $1,200 to people making under $75,000 as simply an immediate April 1 payment to landlords. When pressed on social media about how his #CancelRent proposal would hurt New York City building owners, Gianaris replied that his proposal includes "mortgage forgiveness for landlords in need."

Several New York City Council members and other officials agreed with Gianaris' weeks-long complaints that "tenants can't pay rent if they can't earn a living," as he tweeted on March 20. The country's largest city and several other major urban areas including San Francisco remain under quarantine over the coronavirus pandemic.

"So many people who've lost their jobs & businesses are contacting me worried about paying the rent. They shouldn't have to. I join@SenGianaris in calling to #CancelRent for at least 90 days during this pandemic," remarked Jimmy Van Bramer, a New York City Council member.

SEE 

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/mall-giant-taubman-centers-to-retail.html

GOOD NEWS
Sanders is still running, and he may not stop anytime soon


Allan Smith and Jane C. Timm 3/28/2020


Bernie Sanders is making it increasingly clear that his presidential bid is far from over, even as he faces long odds of winning the Democratic nomination.

© Charles Krupa Image: Bernie Sanders

Less clear, however, is whether his game plan is to pursue victory or to continue promoting his progressive agenda as nearly all aspects of American life — including the election — are upended by the coronavirus crisis.

While some former top advisers acknowledge the difficulty Sanders has in overcoming Joe Biden's significant delegate lead, other allies of the Vermont senator note that his message and his agenda are well-suited to a moment when millions of people are filing for unemployment and losing their health care while large corporations seek billions in bail out funds.

James Zogby, a Democratic National Committee member who is on the board of "Our Revolution," said in an interview that he saw no reason for Sanders to give up his national platform now.

"We don't know what will befall us," he said. "I mean, who knew two months ago that we'd be where we are with the virus. Who knows where we'll be two months from now? Who knows what Bernie does, what Biden does, what else happens that will change the dynamics, so it would be irresponsible to leave the race, as some have suggested."

Zogby said Sanders should not exit the race unless Biden becomes the presumptive nominee — which he could do by hitting the necessary threshold of 1,991 pledged delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination on the first ballot at the convention.

"But even then, don't forget, Bernie Sanders is not just a candidate," Zogby said, pointing to Sanders' place atop the progressive movement. "He has every reason to stay in for that reason."

The pandemic has scuttled traditional aspects of the 2020 election, forcing both Biden and Sanders to turn their operations digital. After disappointing showings in primaries that took place in early March, just as the outbreak was worsening, advisers said Sanders was assessing "a path forward" for his the campaign and larger progressive movement.

Longtime Sanders ally Larry Cohen, who chairs the board of the progressive political action organization "Our Revolution," echoed Zogby, saying he expected Sanders would stay in the race.

"My sense is — and this is my belief - he will keep running," Cohen said in an interview with NBC News, adding that many voters have not yet cast their ballots and the only way to know the strength of progressives within the Democratic party is to let people vote.

Sanders is a deft digital campaigner, particularly when compared to Biden's operation, something that could boost his campaign in the coming weeks. The next major voting night, however, is likely more than a month away.

After so many states postponed their contests, June 2 is now shaping up to be a mini-Super Tuesday, with nearly 700 delegates on the line already in about a dozen rescheduled contests. Sanders' campaign announced this week that he was preparing for the possibility of upcoming debates and staffing up in New York ahead of its primary, which the state's governor, Andrew Cuomo, announced Saturday was being postponed until late June.

Biden, meanwhile, told reporters at a Wednesday news conference he thinks "we've had enough debates" and "I think we should get on with this."

Pressed on whether Sanders' refusing to cede the primary would detract from the coronavirus fight, Cohen dismissed the idea. "He would do that no matter what, and he will do that with as many allies as possible, including Vice President Biden," Cohen said.



At his first social distancing rally, the Sanders campaign streamed highly-produced sets by Jim James from My Morning Jacket and the Free Nationals. Neil Young recorded a song on his cell phone while his dog wandered in and out of the shot. The session generated roughly 5.3 million views.

Even as some called for him to exit the race, Sanders turned his campaign into a vehicle to spread information about the outbreak and explain why he believes progressive goals like "Medicare for All" are even more urgently needed. He used his mailing list to raise $2 million for coronavirus, then circulated a petition to support Amazon warehouse workers. Earlier this week, Sanders streamed another event where he explained all the details of the more than $2 trillion Senate coronavirus stimulus package — what he liked and what he didn't like, what he'd fought for and what Republicans had sought.

Then, Sanders went viral after a fiery speech on the Senate floor in which he criticized several Republicans who sought to amend the massive emergency coronavirus package because of a provision that may allow some unemployed workers to make more money in unemployment than what they were previously making in their jobs.

"Oh my god, the universe is collapsing!" Sanders said, arms waving. "Imagine that, somebody who's making $12 bucks an hour now, like the rest of us, faces an unprecedented economic crisis with the $600 on top of their normal unemployment check might be making a few bucks more for four months. Oh my word! Will the universe survive! How absurd and wrong is that? What kind of value system is that?"

Zogby said that was an example of Sanders effectively using his platform to spread his message online.

"Joe Biden, on the other hand, has not been able to do that," Zogby added. "And when he has, there've been times when it just hasn't looked right, hasn't come off well."

Mark Longabaugh, a senior adviser to Sanders' 2016 campaign, told NBC News that despite Sanders' digital prowess, the fully virtual nature of the race will still make it tough for "Sanders to turn around a huge set of defeats that have put him very far behind on the delegate count."

Sanders currently trails Biden by about 300 delegates, and he will have to run up the score in all the upcoming races just to catch up.

"And I don't really see how he does that," Longabaugh said. "I just don't see how he turns the whole game around and wins 65 percent of the vote on June 2."

Longabaugh pointed to that Senate floor speech as classic Sanders, and an example of how Sanders will use his large platform to exert influence as the crisis continues.

But he doesn't believe Sanders' early advantage in digital communication over Biden will be long lasting. Biden is "going to catch up very quickly," he said.

"I hope [Sanders] decides to get behind Joe Biden earlier rather than later, unify the party earlier," Longabaugh said. "And I think that would be the best move for him. It's the best move for the party. And I especially think it's the best move for his political agenda, which I know he cares deeply about."