WASHINGTON (WUSA9) — It was a protest for the age of social distancing: 1,000 indicators, however no individuals.
A coalition of unions and progressive teams planted the indicators in entrance of the Capitol on Friday to demand the federal authorities make sure the satisfactory manufacturing and distribution of protecting gear to well being care staff.
All informed, organizers estimate there are 18 million medical doctors, nurses, and residential nursing aides across the nation, so every signal represented 18,000 staff.
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Lots of these staff are nonetheless scuffling with shortages of non-public protecting gear, or PPE – gloves, robes, face shields, and masks.
“It’s very upsetting. I believe all of us have fairly a bit of hysteria,” mentioned Dr. Milla Kviatkovsky, a doctor in San Diego and one of many protest organizers. “That is very actual. And for a lot of physicians, that is probably the most troublesome time that they’ve ever labored of their lives.”
The CDC estimates at the least 9,200 well being care staff have gotten sick, and at the least 27 have died.
One of many latter was Madhvi Aya, doctor’s assistant in Brooklyn who died from COVID-19.
“She was my hero and he or she was different individuals’s hero. My dad likes to name her supermom, as a result of she actually was,” mentioned her daughter, Minnoli Aya, as she described her mother’s last texts promising to come back again to her household.
Organizers of the Capitol Hill protest additionally delivered some 2 million petitions urging Congress and the Trump Administration to make use of the total energy of the federal authorities to satisfy the demand for PPE.
Early on, the President blamed the states for shortages, however has since backed away from that.
“We’re not a delivery clerk,” he mentioned on March 19.
“Till we begin listening to from the frontline that they’ve sufficient, then nonetheless a lot he’s deploying shouldn’t be sufficient,” mentioned Dr. Kviatkovsky of the group FrontlinePPENow.
Organizers of the protest included Nationwide Nurses United and the progressive group, MoveOn.org.