Mar 24, 2020 - Health

Health care workers crowdsource ideas to get more medical gear to fight coronavirus

Caitlin Owens

Photo: Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Health care workers and scientists have been sending in hundreds of suggestions, through for how hospitals and clinicians can conserve their supplies of masks and other protective gear via the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Why it matters: Hospitals are either out of these supplies already or will be soon enough, so crowdsourcing ideas of how to stem the shortages could save lives.

A few ideas stuck out to Axios' Bob Herman:

  • A scientist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center explained how and why his system is using UV light to disinfect N95 masks.
  • Snorkel masks or other SCUBA gear could be reused and provide some protection from contaminated droplets in the air.
  • Dentists and vets could donate their masks and equipment, since their patient visits have either been canceled or curtailed heavily.

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President Trump during his coronavirus briefing at the White House on Sunday. Photo: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

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Details: Trump's comments drew criticism from Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and the Greater New York Hospital Association, which said health care workers "deserve better than their president suggesting that PPE is 'going out the back door' of New York hospitals," in reference to Trump singling out an unnamed state hospital to question why they were using so many masks.

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Driving the news: "Today, I, as leader of FEMA's supply chain task force, am blind to where all the product is," Rear Adm. John Polowczyk tells Axios.

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A plane from Shanghai arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York Sunday morning carrying an extraordinary load: 12 million gloves, 130,000 N95 masks, 1.7 million surgical masks, 50,000 gowns, 130,000 hand sanitizer units, and 36,000 thermometers.

Why it matters: The flight is the start of what might end up being the largest government-led airlift of emergency medical supplies into the United States.

Go deeperArrowMar 29, 2020 - Health