City Workers Appeal for More Pandemic Protective Gear

By STACY FISCH

Representatives of various municipal workers urged a joint committee of the City Council on Thursday to help prevent shortages in the stockpile of personal protective equipment (PPE’s)n the event of a probable second COVID-19 wave or future pandemic.

Carmen Charles, president of Local 420 of the Municipal Hospital Workers Union painted a dire portrait of the lack of protective gear in the first wave when 15 of her members died from the virus.

“While doctors and nurses may be in the patient’s room for a certain amount of time,” Charles told Council Members on the committees of Economic Development, Contracts and Governmental Operations in a virtual hearing. , “My members are the ones who spend the most amount of time in the room.” She added, “”My members are a part of the healthcare team. They should not be treated like second class citizens,”

When city hospitals had a shortage of N95 masks in March, Charles testified that the nursing director told her that her members are not essential enough to receive N95 masks, forcing the municipal healthcare workers to buy their own masks.

Healthcare workers encountered other problems, witnesses said. In March, the workers shared photos on social media of their faces bruised by goggles and masks. The stockpile did not supply the medical staff with equipment for the amount of time they were working.

Registered nurse Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez proposed using an elastic respirator that covers the entire face. Sheridan-Gonzalez said they are fit tested and can be adjusted and will not scar the face.

“The mask lasts for years, but the filters need to be replaced after 90 days, and they’re cheap,” Sheridan Gonzalez said.

Such members as housekeeping aides cleaned the rooms of COVID patients where they were threatened by exposure to lingering Covid-19 droplets.

Another witness, testifying for education workers, Donald Nesbit, vice president of local 372, said the Education Department  received one face shield for ten lunch employees. They worry they can get infected by an asymptomatic student.

Witnesses said they were not reimbursed for the additional PPE they purchased.

“I would be interested to see how much you spent and be interested in delivering a bill to the city for those amounts,” Councilman Ben Kallos said.

The Committee on Contracts proposed a bill  calling for a special inspector within the Department of Investigation to review contracts in response to the 2019 novel coronavirus.

In April, several vendors failed to deliver masks and ventilators, and some were defective. The department ordered PPE between March 6 and April 11; only one vendor delivered promptly.

In early April, a Brooklynite,  Baruch Feldheim, hoarded almost 200,000 N95 respirators and about 130,000 surgical masks. According to the FBI,  Feldheim charged a Jersey doctor $12,000 for a large order of PPE.