The California Nurses Association and National Nurses United sent a flyer to members noting that Kaiser had threatened nurses with firing if they wear their own N95 masks, which offer a high level of protection from airborne contaminants, to work. “Kaiser has told nurses that if they’re seen wearing their personal N95 masks, they could be fired ‘on the spot’ for insubordination,” the flyer read.
Close to 100 nurses and family members gathered outside Kaiser’s Oakland Medical Center on Monday night to protest the new guidelines, saying that they put both patients and critical staff at risk. Staff at the center have been caring for patients from the Grand Princess cruise ship, which had at least 21 passengers test positive for Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
* * *
What this means is that health authorities in California are trying to spread the coronavirus. This has become increasingly obvious with LA County previously announcing they would no longer even attempt to contain the virus. They ordered doctors to stop nearly all coronavirus testing, which also means halting all isolation attempts to stop the spread from accelerating.
Not long before that, Sacramento County ended all quarantine attempts and announced that high-risk people would simply be released from quarantine directives and allowed to spread the coronavirus without limit.
Does this sound like incompetence, or like a concerted attempt to spread the virus?
I found it hard to believe, also, but the California Nurses' Association website tends to corroborate this report:
The California Nurses Association/National Nurses United today called on California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state officials to sharply escalate steps to get immediately personal protective equipment to nurses and other health care workers.
* * *
“We hear from scores of nurses every day, across the U.S., and many of them in California. They still do not have access to proper protective masks, such as N95 respirators, and full head-to-toe protective clothing,” said Castillo.
* * *
To make matters worse, the California Department of Public Health, which has been underfunding public health budgets for a decade, yesterday informed California hospitals that it is waiving the state's current strong requirements on hospital safety.
This waiver will allow hospitals to sharply lower practices on a wide variety of standards, including personal protective equipment (PPEs) and even safe nurse staffing for patients (nursing ratios).
On PPEs, CDPH cites the much lower, non-mandatory, guidelines suggested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that is allowing hospitals to use vastly inferior materials, such as bandanas, that provide almost no effective protection when patients are highly contagious.
“At a time when nurses are already being told to use makeshift, inferior coverings, see N95 respirators locked up, and even being disciplined when they bring in their own N95s, this is the worst message we can send to hospital employers,” Castillo noted.
I’m not defending Kaiser, but even the union’s charge is not that they’re “firing any nurse who wears a mask.” They’re trying to get nurses to not bring in any old mask. Clearly, though, if nurses are taking that step then they’re not getting what they need from Kaiser.
Maddy wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2020 11:46 am
I found it hard to believe, also, but the California Nurses' Association website tends to corroborate this report:
The California Nurses Association/National Nurses United today called on California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state officials to sharply escalate steps to get immediately personal protective equipment to nurses and other health care workers.
* * *
“We hear from scores of nurses every day, across the U.S., and many of them in California. They still do not have access to proper protective masks, such as N95 respirators, and full head-to-toe protective clothing,” said Castillo.
* * *
To make matters worse, the California Department of Public Health, which has been underfunding public health budgets for a decade, yesterday informed California hospitals that it is waiving the state's current strong requirements on hospital safety.
This waiver will allow hospitals to sharply lower practices on a wide variety of standards, including personal protective equipment (PPEs) and even safe nurse staffing for patients (nursing ratios).
On PPEs, CDPH cites the much lower, non-mandatory, guidelines suggested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that is allowing hospitals to use vastly inferior materials, such as bandanas, that provide almost no effective protection when patients are highly contagious.
“At a time when nurses are already being told to use makeshift, inferior coverings, see N95 respirators locked up, and even being disciplined when they bring in their own N95s, this is the worst message we can send to hospital employers,” Castillo noted.
The military has literally millions of Chem warfare masks sitting in storage. The masks form a tight face seal and the filters on these masks are much more efficient than the N95 filters. Over the years in the military, I argued with several infection control doctors that they need to toss their leaky N95 masks and use real HEPA filters to protect themselves. The Chem warfare masks can be cleaned and re-used.
