Nurses Don’t Have Proper Protection to Fight the Coronavirus. They’re Begging Trump to Help.

Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/AP

A dozen nurses, standing six feet apart outside the White House on Tuesday, called on the Trump administration and Congress to allocate proper personal protective equipment for health care workers who desperately need them.

The nurses, represented by the National Nurses United, demanded that Trump invoke the Defense Production Act to require the private sector to manufacture PPE, which is in such low supply across the country that many health care workers have had to reuse equipment or simply improvise their own.

“Nurses are raising our voices across the country, and we demand to be heard,” one nurse said. “President Trump, Congress, and all other government officials: We demand that you immediately give PPE to nurses, doctors, and health care workers on the front lines of this pandemic. If you don’t protect us, we can’t protect our patients.”

Another nurse read the names of 50 nurses who have died from COVID-19.

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