Read on Twitter
Yesterday I spoke to a constituent who is a critical care specialist. He tested positive for COVID-19 and hasn't worked in 10 days. He's a immigrant from North Africa. Leaving details out to protect his identity, but I'm still reeling at his comments (thread):
1/ "I work at two hospitals. One is a safety net hospital. I am embarrassed that I live in the United States and have to re-use my N95 mask"
2/ "80% of the patients I see test positive for COVID-19. I know the outside of my mask is infected. But I have to save my mask every day in a brown bag with my name on it to use again the next day"
3/ "I lost my sense of taste and smell. I had fever and muscle ache but thankfully didn't have to be admitted to the hospital. I want to get back to work, but I'm not a hero. This is my job."
4/ "[Hospital 1] had sufficient ventilators and we were able to handle the surge. Smaller, Medicaid-dependent hospitals like [Safety net hospital] didn't. The likelihood a patient survives at [SNH] is much lower. They are 20 minutes apart."
5/ "Resources should not be directed that way. [SNH] has a much higher African American population and that explains a lot of the racial disparities we're seeing. It compounds the food deserts and historic public health disparities in poor communities."
6/ "Dictators from [country of birth] remind me of Trump. Someone who is responsible for killing 40,000 people should be forced to resign."
7/ "We have doctors and nurses dying just because they don't have a mask. Why aren't more people speaking out about this? It's causing death."
