I heard from a friend of mine who is a nurse; her sister is a nurse who is now off from work because she became very ill with COVID19 after just a few days of working.

I’ve seen nurses in social media posts fashioning PPE from garbage bags and using plain cloth gowns.

I’ve been told nurses are now putting cloth masks over N95 masks (no evidence that this helps and it may actually harm). There is talk on social media of nurses washing or autoclaving or UV sterilizing N95s, although all of these actions likely degrade the masks or render them useless.

The World Health Organization’s guidelines clearly state to not use cloth masks and to not reuse single-use masks. You can download the guidelines here. https://www.who.int/publications-detail/advice-on-the-use-of-masks-in-the-community-during-home-care-and-in-healthcare-settings-in-the-context-of-the-novel-coronavirus-(2019-ncov)-outbreak?fbclid=IwAR2NRGtIs9AIIeI2HWiA5ZnOu4DoQL3GBOr40AvEJxul3Gms8RnQPb_ORCg

Through the social media grapevine, I heard that a health system in California has notified unionized nurses that they can be fired for choosing to wear their own N95s masks in the workplace.  The systems standards of care and use of PPE around COVID19 positive and presumptive positive appears to have degraded due to lack of PPE and CDC claims. I could not verify this, but below is the circulation of the information.

Lastly, I received notice today that the American Academy of Nursing joined the ANA, AHA, and AMA calling upon the president to enact the Defense Production Act’s authorities in order to ensure that all healthcare providers have PPE and the needed medical equipment to care for people.

You can take similar action; all of the links to contact your legislative representatives and the President are in yesterday’s update posting.

Wishing you wellness and peace.