Metrics from the Get Us PPE database, the largestand most trusted non-governmental source of PPE shortage data in the United States
Media Contacts
For media inquiries, please contact:
Ali Hickerson or Stephanie Zeller
media@getusppe.org
+1 (631) 853-9164
PPE Data through July 2, 2021
As of July 2, 2021, Get Us PPE is no longer registering requests for donated PPE or coordinating PPE deliveries. Learn more
Requests for PPE
total individual requests for PPE from March 20, 2020 through July 2, 2021
Donations Delivered
pieces of PPE delivered to frontline workers since March 2020
Frontline workers requesting PPE were often already out of PPE
KEY TAKEAWAY
Shortages of N95 masks and nitrile gloves remained severe throughout the entire pandemic.
Until every single person is vaccinated, PPE remains our most powerful defense to prevent the spread of COVID.”
Jeremy Faust, MD MS
Get Us PPE Co-founder and emergency physician
N95 Masks
Days remaining until requesters run out
Out of PPE
< 7 days
≥ 7 days
Nitrile Gloves
Days remaining until requesters run out
Out of PPE
< 7 days
≥ 7 days
Each facility making a request for PPE estimated how long their remaining supply would last. This visualization includes requests logged in the Get Us PPE database through July 2, 2021.
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Stories from the Front Lines
For undocumented farmworkers, employers cannot receive government funding to provide PPE. Many undocumented workers are afraid to speak out in fear of deportation or losing their jobs.
— Jianlian Busteed, Get Us PPE Volunteer
The face shields provided often break, and gowns often lack ties to safely fasten them, leaving health care workers at risk for infection.
— Healthcare worker speaking with Get Us PPE
The tribal organization Yukon-Kuskowkwim Health Corp were forced to reuse their gloves for up to six patients and disinfect in between, rather than replacing the gloves with each use, due to the national shortage.
— Deepthi Satya, Get Us PPE Volunteer
A healthcare worker had to contact her friend’s brother’s business manufacturer—who happened to be based in China—and request that 500 masks be sent over for her agency.
— Unnati Gupta, Get Us PPE Volunteer
Requests for PPE indicate the shortage impacted all 50 states
PPE Requests by State
NATIONAL PPE REQUESTS
TOP ITEM REQUESTED:
Hover or tap each state to see requests per state. This map displays the total number of active individual PPE requests per state through July 2, 2021. Numbers are derived from the Get Us PPE database of PPE requests.
KEY TAKEAWAY
Get Us PPE received requests from all 50 states and some U.S. territories. The United States struggled to find its way through the PPE shortage crisis through most of the pandemic. Even as the pandemic began to improve, a mismatch of PPE supply and demand impacted many frontline workers and under-resourced communities.
There is still no centralized federal database for personal protective equipment. The disconnect between what’s purported to be in the stockpile and the needs on the front-line is astounding.”
Ali Raja, MD
Get Us PPE Co-founder and emergency physician
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Stories from the Front Lines
Our department’s PPE is stored and locked in my supervisor’s office. Before the pandemic, PPE was easily accessible to all employees on each floor of our hospital.
— Healthcare worker at a large midwestern hospital
Without proper support, many Native American healthcare providers have taken matters into their own hands. They've made calls to the public for donations to acquire testing kits and meet equipment needs.
— Jenny Zhao, Get Us PPE Volunteer
We've heard from doctors and nurses at rural health clinics who are using raincoats instead of hospital gowns, and from nursing homes caring for COVID-positive patients without any PPE at all.
— Shikha Gupta, MD, Get Us PPE Executive Director
Need for PPE extended far beyond hospitals
Facilities Requesting PPE
Hospital Facilities
Non-Hospital Facilities
Hover or tap each bar to see facility types per month. The Get Us PPE request form asked requesters to identify their facility type. This graph displays requests logged in the Get Us PPE database from January 2021 through June 2021.
KEY TAKEAWAY
Since mid-2020, well-funded hospitals have been able to purchase PPE directly from suppliers. Meanwhile, small and under-resourced facilities like nursing homes, Title I schools, and clinics continued facing barriers to PPE access, including high prices and minimum order quantities. To support under-resourced facilities, Get Us PPE advocated for the government to:
The silent tragedy of the pandemic is that it disproportionately affects our most under-resourced communities. This is why the Get Us PPE mission focuses on equity — we need to provide resources to all people in order to end the pandemic.”
Megan Ranney, MD MPH
Get Us PPE Co-founder and emergency physician
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Stories from the Front Lines
Smaller facilities are still facing a shortage due to lower budgets or an inability to purchase in bulk. Latinx essential workers are more likely to depend on these facilities for medical care for both themselves and their families.
— Deepthi Satya, Get Us PPE Volunteer
Non-hospital, small facilities often have no connections to [big PPE] suppliers, and rarely have the means to buy PPE in bulk. [During the Trump administration] there was nothing out there- no centralized place for all facilities to report PPE needs.
— Ali Raja, MD, Get Us PPE co-founder
As a district, nurses have asked for proper PPE and were told that, "There’s nothing available; there’s a nationwide shortage.” In our district, each nurse received three masks, which were marketed for construction-use only, and we’re required to reuse these supplies or provide our own.
— School nurse speaking with Get Us PPE
As the supply chain started to recover, we noticed that larger hospitals and hospital systems in urban areas have been able to recover their PPE contacts and supplies, but smaller institutions and facilities [were] still really struggling.
— Stephanie Zeller, Get Us PPE Volunteer
Types of PPE requested evolved over time
KEY TAKEAWAY
The most commonly requested types of PPE changed throughout the pandemic. Supply chain issues for some types of PPE, like face shields, were solved midway through the pandemic. Our nation's community of makers were able to supplement some PPE needs. Issues with other types of PPE, like nitrile gloves and N95 masks, persisted. Manufacturing shifts continue to impact supply and demand.
The previous administration’s policies led to a marketplace rife with price gouging and supply shortages. Outside of hospitals, frontline workers still cannot find PPE at affordable prices even when there is supply available. A disconnect exists in supply and demand.”
Shikha Gupta, MD
Executive Director, Get Us PPE
Most Requested Types of PPE
All time data reflects the median request size of all PPE requests logged in the Get Us PPE database from March 2020 through June 2021. The June 2021 timeframe is provided for comparison of how PPE types requested changed throughout the pandemic.
Requests for Facial PPE
- PPE TYPE 6 MONTH TOTAL
Requests for Non-Facial PPE
- PPE TYPE 6 MONTH TOTAL
Requests for Sanitizing & Other Types of PPE
- PPE TYPE 6 MONTH TOTAL
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Stories from the Front Lines
I've ordered masks from different sources since March 2020, but I was not able to get anything [throughout summer]. We wear donated masks. Now we can give masks to patients who need masks when they come to our office.
— Dr. Alicja R., MD, IMPULS Internal Medicine, Wilmington, NC
With the largest producer of nitrile gloves forced to shut down in November due to a COVID-19 outbreak, the supply chain has been slow to recover. An increase in prices, delay in delivery, and shortage in raw materials has made obtaining a steady supply of nitrile gloves extremely difficult.
— Unnati Gupta, Get Us PPE Volunteer
The most frustrating thing to me [about the ongoing N95 shortage] is knowing that my safety is being compromised every day.
— Healthcare worker speaking with Get Us PPE
PPE shortages are still severe, especially in our most vulnerable communities.” N95s and nitrile gloves continue to be in short supply, or if available, too expensive for many low-cost clinics and small hospitals to afford.
— Shikha Gupta, MD, Get Us PPE Executive Director
Some schools report months of backlog when trying to order masks, wipes, gloves, and more. While we may see boxes of masks and gloves lining the shelves of grocery stores, schools are in need of medical-grade PPE.
— Unnati Gupta, Get Us PPE Volunteer
Gowns were manufactured, palleted, shipped, and delivered to the warehouse within a week. [Get Us PPE and partners] delivered 10,000 gowns to six different healthcare providers in the Houston area. After their success in Houston, the team delivered another 10,000 gowns to New Orleans and then to Los Angeles.
— Deepika Katta, Get Us PPE Volunteer
Millions of pieces of PPE delivered to those in need
PPE Deliveries by State
NATIONAL PPE DELIVERIES
TOP ITEM DELIVERED:
Hover or tap each state to see deliveries per state. This map displays the total number of PPE units delivered per state through July 2, 2021. Numbers are derived from the Get Us PPE database of donated PPE deliveries.
PPE Delivered vs. Requested
# DELIVERED
# REQUESTED
This visual displays total number of PPE units delivered compared to number of units requested through July 2, 2021. Numbers are derived from the Get Us PPE database.
KEY TAKEAWAY
The millions of pieces of personal protective equipment distributed via Get Us PPE served as a just-in-time solution to the PPE crisis while the supply chain stabilized. Although a significant amount of donated PPE was distributed, PPE needs continued to exist across the nation, often outstripping donated supply.
As our nation works toward herd immunity, we need PPE to protect frontline workers throughout vaccine rollout. This is critically important as new variants are on the rise.”
Shuhan He, MD
Get Us PPE Co-founder and emergency physician
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Stories from the Front Lines
We distribute PPE to under-served communities, frontline healthcare workers, schools, and others serving these communities, with the ultimate aim of reducing health disparities.
— Joanna Calderón, MPH, Get Us PPE Health Equity Deputy Director
If you live in a rural community, or a Black or indigenous community, your local facilities are less likely to have enough PPE. The PPE crisis is a health equity issue.
— Dr. Megan Ranney, MD MPH, Get Us PPE Co-founder
The markets have allowed counterfeit products to enter many healthcare facilities and price gouging to become common.
— Unnati Gupta, Get Us PPE Volunteer
Monthly PPE Shortage Index Archive
Starting in August 2020, PPE data was compiled into a monthly PPE Shortage Index. Based on requests submitted to Get Us PPE, this data explained our nation’s PPE crisis and helped bring awareness to the issue facing frontline workers in need of personal protective equipment. View or download a PDF of each monthly index below.
Get Us PPE outreach to facilities who had submitted a request we had not yet fulfilled resulted in outdated requests being deactivated in our database.
About Get Us PPE and our data science
About the Data
Get Us PPE is driven by hundreds of dedicated volunteers. We maintain a commitment to equity as a central value. Here, we explain our methods for data collection, limitations of the data, and the individuals involved at each step.
This data is derived from PPE requests entered into the request form on our website. We accept requests from a range of frontline organizations, including healthcare facilities and organizations, natural disaster relief groups, homeless shelters, social services organizations, and many more. On our request form, we capture information on the location, size, and scale of each requesting facility and the type of care provided there. This helps us deliver the most appropriate PPE for each facility and to prioritize the most underserved, in-need communities, while taking into account logistical factors for PPE deliveries. Finally, we collect information on need—types of PPE needed, amount needed per week, how the requester/institution is currently using PPE (normally? rationing?), and how long until PPE runs out.
We maintain a large store of need and supply-related data. This data is provided by individuals and institutions across the United States in critical need of PPE. In order to ensure we have the most up-to-date information, we clean the data by removing duplicate requests and ensuring requesting facilities are only counted once. Sometimes, individuals filling out our request form make mistakes while entering their needs and information. They may not have exact figures, or may not know answers to specific questions on the form. Our Data Verification team works to verify requesting facilities and to ensure the information they’re entering is accurate.
Get Us PPE was founded quickly and scrappily. We assumed we would not be needed long—two weeks at most—before another group would solve the PPE crisis. Yet we are still seeing PPE shortages and supply/demand mismatches across the country. Our original scope and mandate didn’t demand sophisticated technological architecture, but we have since adjusted. In addition to creating a Fair Distribution Algorithm to optimize equity, we became the architects of our own technology solutions to meet our nation’s immense and continued need. Over time, we have improved our request form and systems to ensure we are capturing all the information required to make the most equitable distribution choices possible. As a result, many data fields are absent from earlier requests. We are now working to fill those blanks wherever possible by retroactively providing more information about institutions requesting and their needs, allowing for improved visualization and analysis.
One of the largest factors driving the data we chose to compile and visualize is the qualitative data obtained through numerous outreach projects to facilities nationwide. Hundreds of Get Us PPE volunteers called or emailed facilities, especially those in under-served communities and recorded their comments, many of which provide anecdotal evidence for types of shortages that may remain hidden in large datasets. The data from our database tells many of these stories quantitatively. As the PPE crisis has evolved, we continue to employ this mixed-methods approach in order to tell the story of the PPE shortages frontline workers are experiencing on the ground every day.
About the Team
Data Analysis, Design, and Visualization: Stephanie Zeller
Interactive Strategy, Design, and Visualization: Donni Popejoy
Frontend Web Developer: David W. Couch
Developer: Erica Abrahms
Director, Product and Technology: Clé Diggins
Director of Communications and PR: Amanda Peery-Wolf
Data Dashboard Architect: Ryan Cranfill
Design Team Lead: Priscilla Woo
Deputy Director of Operations for Health Equity: Joanna Calderón
EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP
Executive Director: Shikha Gupta, MD
Chief of Staff: Ali Hickerson
CO-FOUNDERS
Jeremy Faust, MD, MS
Megan Ranney, MD, MPH
Shuhan He, MD
Ali Raja, MD, MBA
Esther Choo, MD, MPH
Val Griffeth, MD, PhD
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Christopher Barsotti, MD
Zach Peery-Wolf
Megan Ranney, MD, MPH
Shuhan He, MD
Dorothy Jones-Davis, PhD
Ram Bala, PhD
Esther Choo, MD, MPH
Jacqueline Chan, MPH
Dottie Enrico
