Ed Markey, MGH President Peter Slavin say coronavirus requires wartime-like response for medical equipment
"We wouldn't want to send soldiers into war without helmets and armor."
Sen. Ed Markey says the country’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak requires a wartime-like mobilization of private manufacturing to meet demands for medical equipment, from gowns and facial masks to hand sanitizer.
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“We are at war with coronavirus and we need a mass, wartime manufacturing mobilization for coronavirus in order to make the testing kits and the personal protective equipment for medical personnel,” the Democrat said during a press conference Sunday.
Specifically, Markey is urging the Trump Administration to invoke powers provided through the Defense Production Act of 1950. The measure, which has been used during the Korean and cold wars, grants the president authority to spur the domestic industry into mass production to maintain national stockpiles for emergency preparedness.
Markey detailed the option in a letter to the president Sunday, as he also implored Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to take swift action in picking up the House-approved coronavirus response package.
Markey told reporters the country is facing “a pandemic of historic proportions.”
“We need to activate our capable, intelligent domestic industry and bring the full power of the federal government to bear in responding to this crisis,” he said.
The medical community is in need of gowns, gloves, face shields, N95 respirators, surgical masks, disinfectant wipes, and hand sanitizer — all known as “personal protective equipment,” or PPE, according to Markey.
“PPE also stands for ‘A Promise to Protect Everyone’ and this is the promise we should make and keep for our hospital personnel, first responders, and patients,” Markey said.
https://www.facebook.com/EdJMarkey/videos/140587327325727/
Dr. Peter Slavin, president of Massachusetts General Hospital, offered a similar view Sunday that the pandemic requires a war-like response in order to protect healthcare workers fighting on the frontlines.
“Even before the most significant battles (that) lie ahead, our supplies are low,” Slavin said during an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press. “I hear from hospitals around the region and around our country that their supplies are low, and we need the federal government to engage in a Manhattan Project to get industry to create surgical masks, eye protection devices, gowns so that our healthcare workers can engage in this battle.
“We wouldn’t want to send soldiers into war without helmets and armor,” he added. “We don’t want to do the same with our healthcare workers.”
Massachusetts General Hospital told employees Saturday to start to re-use their N95 respirators, amid a short supply, The Boston Globe reports.
Ed Raeke, the hospital’s director of materials management, told the newspaper he’ll find out Tuesday if the facility will receive more masks Friday.
“To go to reuse I think is a prudent step, but it shows you we are not comfortable right now,” he said.
Markey said hospitals and laboratories are trying to ramp up testing, but lack the supplies to do so. He also called on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to release its testing plans for the coming six weeks.
“Our nation must be able to conduct tens or hundreds of thousands of tests daily, ultimately testing millions of people, tens of millions of people across the course of this response,” he said. “That means producing swabs and other testing materials.”
On Sunday, Markey also wrote to National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins, asking for the agency to provide flexibility to the 300,000 researchers it funds so they can “repurpose equipment and resources toward COVID-19 diagnostic testing.”
“We need immediate and large-scale response in this country, and our talented biomedical community can contribute to this response,” Markey wrote. “This is an all-hands-on-deck moment, and every moment counts.”
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