California was hit especially hard by the coronavirus pandemic this past summer, and a new report from the U.C. Berkeley Labor Center examines how much of that toll could have been avoided had the state maintained an adequate PPE stockpile.
By Unnati Gupta The Big Picture Over 500,000 children have now been diagnosed with COVID-19 (almost 10% of the United States’ total cases): a shocking reminder that this pandemic is not over. While children are likely to have mild to no symptoms, COVID-19 rates in children bring significant concern to the susceptibility of multigenerational families, as children can easily spread this virus to others around them. Black and Hispanic children are being disproportionately affected, reflecting similar trends seen with adults. Hospital Workers Left Unprotected As new demographics rapidly contract COVID-19, one story remains unchanged: the lack of PPE in hospitals….
Welcome to Get Us PPE’s new series, Generation Z(oom): High school senior Anna Dai-Liu chronicles the historic 2020-2021 school year from the perspective of students, teachers, and others to learn how the pandemic is changing education. By Anna Dai-Liu There’s a pair of heels in the top shelf of my closet that sit untouched. They were supposed to click across the hall of a museum, or tap across the tiled floors of a dance floor, or patter across a field of grass quickly before the knife-like stilettos began to sink into the mud. Now the only floor they ever touch…
By Unnati Gupta, Blog writer at GetUsPPE The Big Picture As cases continue to rise, many states have started to slow in their case growth, but certain states like Georgia, California, and Texas have not yet seen the worst. A recent report leaked by the White House Task Force has advised Georgia to initiate a state-wide mask mandate. Following these recommendations, Republican governor Brain Kemp was scheduled to sign an executive order to mandate masks in public places but not private businesses. Many states have followed similar guidelines, but numbers have continuously shown that simply advising social distancing and mask-wearing…
By Deepthi Sathya As the end of summer vacation draws near, many uncertainties remain for local leaders tasked to safely reopen schools, businesses, and other facilities. One thing we know for sure—school this fall will look very different than usual. Some schools are offering a blended in-person teaching schedule, where students can go to school in-person for a few days per week. However, this leaves many working parents concerned about child care options. Teachers and administrators, on the other hand, are worried about the lack of funding in some schools, and how it will affect the availability of PPE to…
By Sarah Lee Deep-rooted racial inequities and the structural impacts of white supremacy have led to widespread health disparities between racial and ethnic groups in the United States. Especially during public health emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic, institutional racism leaves minority populations more susceptible to viruses and the diseases they cause. Although early studies identified the elderly and the immunocompromised at greatest risk from COVID-19, researchers are now redirecting their focus to population-level risk factors. Race has been found to be as influential—if not more—as age in determining the likelihood of developing a severe form of illness and leading to…
By Emma Swidler, a Team Leader for the Phone Banking Initiative and a blog contributor at GetUsPPE.org. By late April, many states were eagerly preparing to reopen. But frontline workers knew that the nation was nowhere close to a state of safety. Amed Family Clinic in Nashville, Tennessee was one of many healthcare facilities within the US that had rapidly dwindling PPE supplies. Staff and doctors were using rain ponchos as gowns, and the number of cases at the clinic were rising. As more facilities faced the same bleak reality, Dr. Megan Ranney and Dr. Shuhan He, Co-Founders of GetUsPPE,…
In June, over 46,900 units of PPE were distributed by GetUsPPE affiliates to Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters in cities including Los Angeles, New Orleans, Cincinnati, Chicago, New York, New Haven, Chicago, Portland, and Washington D.C. The PPE being made and delivered to protesters is supported by our PPE for Black Lives Fund, which we recently launched to fundraise for this vital area of work. The fund supports PPE going to protesters, and any additional funding for protective equipment left over if and when protesters no longer need it will be directed toward healthcare and essential workers in Black communities….
By Grace Jin, a blog contributor at GetUsPPE.org. As a public health initiative founded on principles of safety, GetUsPPE stands in solidarity with the thousands of people marching for Black lives across the United States. To help protect the protesters taking to the streets during the COVID-19 pandemic, our network of affiliates have mobilized to distribute over 46,900 masks and other PPE to community-led organizations and Black Lives Matter (BLM) demonstrators, as well as medical-grade supplies to street medics assisting injured protesters. We asked some of our coalition members about their efforts to distribute PPE, why direct action is important,…
By Grace Jin, a blog contributor at GetUsPPE.org. GetUsPPE formed out of a fundamental conviction that when lives are put at risk, we all need to step up. That’s why we’ve rallied together to coordinate donations and distribution of personal protective equipment (PPE) to healthcare workers on the frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis. That’s also why we stand in support of protests against police violence and structural racism, set off by the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and other Black Americans. As the pandemic continues, cloth masks are an essential piece of PPE for those taking to…
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