There is a shortage of equipment to protect medical personnel who are treating patients during the coronavirus pandemic, former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy told Fox’s “American Newsroom” on Tuesday.
"We know that masks and gowns and visors to protect our eyes are especially important right now, particularly for our health care workers," said Murthy, who was surgeon general in the Obama administration. “I’m talking to folks in hospitals across the country - doctors and nurses who are having to reuse masks. My own father and sister, who are doctors in Miami, Florida, and have a private practice there, are unable to get masks to protect themselves and are just waiting and hoping that one day these will actually get delivered to them.”
Murthy said that due to this lack of proper protective equipment, “We’re now seeing in Atlanta and more cities around the country that doctors are now getting sick with COVID-19 and it’s taking them out of the workforce at exactly the time when we need them.”
He added that, unfortunately, cases like this only will increase in the weeks ahead.
The former surgeon general added that the lack of sufficient testing capacity also means that the country is not getting a proper sense of how many people are infected with the coronavirus.
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Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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