Nurses protest outside White House: “You throw us out onto a battlefield without armor”

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Nurses with the union National Nurses United rallied to the White House on Thursday to protest the lack of PPE available to health care workers.
• They lined up pairs of empty white shoes to represent the ‘fallen’ nurses who died due to “insufficient PPE” amid the coronavirus pandemic. 
• “You talk about how essential, how needed, how grateful you are, and yet you throw us to the wolves,” the union president, Jean Ross, told CNN.

Nurses with the union National Nurses United rallied outside the White House on Thursday to protest the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) for health care workers on the front lines of the coronavirus crisis. 

The protesters stood outside the White House and lined up pairs of empty shoes to represent their fellow nurses who died due to “insufficient PPE” amid the coronavirus pandemic. They also read the names of 88 nurses who died.

Union RNs placed shoes outside the White House, each pair representing a nurse lost due to insufficient PPE during #COVID19.

Put yourself in their shoes.
Honor the fallen.
And fight like hell for the living.

Call Congress NOW and demand they #ProtectNurses: (202) 335-6015 pic.twitter.com/yPtFbB91Fh— NationalNursesUnited (@NationalNurses) May 7, 2020

In an interview with CNN, the president of the union, Jean Ross said: “You talk about how essential, how needed, how grateful you are, and yet you throw us to the wolves.”

“You throw us out onto a battlefield without armor and the more we complain we don’t see anything being done,” she added.

The union is asking the federal government to protect the nurses and all health care workers by providing proper gear. 

White House spokesman Judd Deere said nurses are the “true heroes in this ongoing war” and added they have President Trump’s “admiration for the lives they are saving.” 

“As the President has said, this is a locally executed, state managed, federally supported response to a global pandemic,” Deere added. “The White House has been working with governors and their teams since January on COVID-19 coordination and supplies. Every level of government needs to deliver data-driven solutions and that is what we are doing in partnership.”

The demonstration was not the first time the nurses union protested outside the White House. 

Last month, they did a similar protest outside the White House, calling the administration to take action and acquire more PPE.

Source: The Hill