There’s A Stockpile Of Nearly 1.5M Masks In A Government Warehouse, But They’re Expired
Government officials decided to offer the respirators to TSA, an agency whose workers have been hit hard by the outbreak. There are no plans to send them to hospitals who have been desperately asking for protective gear for their health care providers. Meanwhile, health care workers are resorting to making hand-sewn masks that do little to protect them from the coronavirus.
The Washington Post:
Coronavirus: U.S. Government Has 1.5 Million Expired N95 Masks Sitting In An Indiana Warehouse
Nearly 1.5 million N95 respirator masks are sitting in a U.S. government warehouse in Indiana and authorities have not shipped them because they are past their expiration date, despite Centers for Disease Control guidelines that have been issued for their safe use during the coronavirus outbreak, according to five people with knowledge of the stockpile. (Miroff, 3/26)
The Hill:
Feds Have 1.5 Million Expired N95 Masks In Storage Despite CDC Clearing Them For Use On COVID-19: Report
The masks are reportedly part of Customs and Border Protection’s emergency stock. In a meeting Wednesday about what to do with the masks, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials decided to turn the masks over to the Transportation Security Administration, which has demanded masks of its own, according to the Post's sources. The sources told the paper that CBP has no plans of giving the masks to hospitals or the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).(Johnson, 3/26)
The New York Times:
National Cathedral, Nasdaq, Businesses And Unions Locate Troves Of N95 Masks
Joe Alonso, the head stonemason at the Washington National Cathedral, had tended to the building for 35 years. He knew its nooks and crannies. So when news spread of a shortage of N95 masks needed to fight the coronavirus outbreak, Mr. Alonso remembered something nobody else did: More than 7,000 masks — purchased in 2005 or 2006 amid worries about an avian flu outbreak — were stashed away in an unfinished burial vault in the cathedral’s crypt. (Zaveri and Taylor, 3/26)
Stat:
With Masks Dwindling, A Covid-19 Crisis Team Looks For A Way Out
“I just want to say … yesterday was a really hard day,” said Chuck Morris, one of the two people now in charge of Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “Personally speaking, I sort of went home in a tough place. We’re finding some rhythm, and then some bombs went off.” (Boodman, 3/27)
The Washington Post:
Maryland Firm Retools To Make Protective Gowns And Masks For Coronavirus Pandemic
It was a Friday when Chris McCormick halted production at his Maryland company and furloughed its 23 employees as the novel coronavirus spread across the country, sickening thousands of people and shuttering businesses of all kinds. McCormick had hoped Hatch Exhibits — which makes colorful displays and pop-up exhibition booths for clients such as YouTube, Under Armour and Google — could ride out the crisis with the income expected to come in with one or two big jobs on the books. But the outbreak killed those projects, contributing to losses that had run into the millions of dollars. (Kunkle, 3/26)
ProPublica:
Medical Workers Treating Coronavirus Are Resorting To Homemade Masks
Bryan White leaned in to greet his wife with a kiss on the forehead when she arrived home from a 12-hour shift at Salem Health, an Oregon hospital that’s had 19 confirmed cases of the coronavirus. “Nope, you don’t want that,” his wife told him as she rebuffed his kiss. White’s wife, a registered nurse who is 22 weeks pregnant with their first child, has been reusing one disposable surgical mask for each shift, stashing it in a paper bag after every patient visit. She takes her scrubs with her each night to wash at home, where she also lives with her 95-year-old grandmother. (Schick and Wilson, 3/26)
NBC News:
Protective Gear For Medical Workers Remains Inadequate, Emergency Doctors' Group Says
The quality of personal protective gear for U.S. medical workers battling the coronavirus crisis remains inadequate, the head of the nation's largest organization of emergency room doctors said Thursday, suggesting it is roughly comparable to that of nations like Italy and others that have seen surging infection rates. The warning from Dr. William Jaquis, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, or ACEP, comes after some leaders, including New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, have indicated that the supply of masks, gloves and goggles is adequate in the near term. (Przbyla, 3/27)
