California nurses union plans holiday strike over PPE • Hacker News Board

Re: California nurses union plans holiday strike over PPE

#51

Post by DataWorker » Fri, Dec 18, 2020, 5:11 PM UTC

claudeganon wrote: post #32

quasse wrote: post #3

I can confirm the "used PPE" thing from personal experience. My partner (a nurse at a VA hospital) was given a Tupperware container with holes poked in the lid as "overnight storage" for her N95 mask and was asked to reuse it for up to a month at a time. As far as I know this is still ongoing. I know the cynical take is "you need to stop letting yourself be surprised / disappointed by this kind of thing" but we shoul…

> My coworkers from mainland China were concerned about our well-being and started shipping us KN95 masks My partner’s friend with family in China did the same thing for us. His dad was getting chemo and they had their family send a couple boxes of KN95s over to help protect him. Depressing, given how much America looks like a failed state relative to the two countries pandemic response, but good that interpersonal r…

The reason we don’t have masks is because we’ve gone all in on China and lost our manufacturing base. If you think this happened in the past 3 years, you have to ignore all data and pretend history doesn’t exist.

Re: California nurses union plans holiday strike over PPE

#52

Post by quasse » Fri, Dec 18, 2020, 5:12 PM UTC

claudeganon wrote: post #32

quasse wrote: post #3

I can confirm the "used PPE" thing from personal experience. My partner (a nurse at a VA hospital) was given a Tupperware container with holes poked in the lid as "overnight storage" for her N95 mask and was asked to reuse it for up to a month at a time. As far as I know this is still ongoing. I know the cynical take is "you need to stop letting yourself be surprised / disappointed by this kind of thing" but we shoul…

> My coworkers from mainland China were concerned about our well-being and started shipping us KN95 masks My partner’s friend with family in China did the same thing for us. His dad was getting chemo and they had their family send a couple boxes of KN95s over to help protect him. Depressing, given how much America looks like a failed state relative to the two countries pandemic response, but good that interpersonal r…

Yes, it's not like I have any connection via heritage or anything either, but our Chinese friends and coworkers have been extremely kind to us. They seem mystified / embarrassed to ask about the way our country is managing.

Re: California nurses union plans holiday strike over PPE

#53

Post by Spooky23 » Fri, Dec 18, 2020, 5:12 PM UTC

vmchale wrote: post #26

quasse wrote: post #3

I can confirm the "used PPE" thing from personal experience. My partner (a nurse at a VA hospital) was given a Tupperware container with holes poked in the lid as "overnight storage" for her N95 mask and was asked to reuse it for up to a month at a time. As far as I know this is still ongoing. I know the cynical take is "you need to stop letting yourself be surprised / disappointed by this kind of thing" but we shoul…

Especially since I (the general public) can get an N95 online. If companies aren't protecting their workers they're not trying hard enough.

It's not a supply issue.

The way certain emergency regulations are written, if you don't have enough gear, you can reuse. If you have enough gear, you cannot. It's normal, awful business practices in hospitals.

Re: California nurses union plans holiday strike over PPE

#54

Post by soperj » Fri, Dec 18, 2020, 5:14 PM UTC

sremani wrote: post #43

ashtonkem wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an American, it has been incredibly demoralizing seeing one institution after another fail miserably. I didn’t have high expectations, but oh boy did we fall way short.

"Americans will always do the right thing - after exhausting all the alternatives." -- Churchill 3 vaccines in record time.. I know J&J is still pending. I want the Healthcare/CDC/FDA pipeline to be improved.. Without American ingenuity the world is a much bleaker place.

You realize Russia and China had ones quicker?

Re: California nurses union plans holiday strike over PPE

#55

Post by soperj » Fri, Dec 18, 2020, 5:16 PM UTC

cronix wrote: post #50

In 2006, CA Gov. Schwarzenegger spent $200 Million dollars on stockpiling PPE and ventilators. This was on the heel of the Swine Flu in order to leave the state better prepared in case of another pandemic. The stockpile took about $5 Million a year to maintain after the initial $200M purchase. In 2011, CA Gov. Brown got rid of the program to save that $5M/yr. https://revealnews.org/article/california-created-a-massiv…

Swine flu pandemic was in 2009. Your timeline is off.

Re: California nurses union plans holiday strike over PPE

#56

Post by Baeocystin » Fri, Dec 18, 2020, 5:17 PM UTC

dpeck wrote: post #45

vmchale wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially since I (the general public) can get an N95 online. If companies aren't protecting their workers they're not trying hard enough.

Where can it be bought from a reputable/reliable retailer? I’d love a link.

Not the person you asked, but these are the ones I've been buying from Amazon for the past two months: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B08CGZFSZ9

I've cut one open out of every box I've ordered, and so far they've all been legitimate, 5-layer masks. Actual 3M masks are still impossible to find, but I've been happy enough with these.

Re: California nurses union plans holiday strike over PPE

#57

Post by cronix » Fri, Dec 18, 2020, 5:18 PM UTC

dpeck wrote: post #13

It is absurd that there aren’t n95, and similarly effective, masks easily available 9 months into this thing.

What's absurd is CA abandoning its $200M stockpile of PPE in order to save $5M a year about 9 years ago. That stockpiles purpose was to help alleviate another pandemic after the scare from the Swine Flu.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-03-27/coronavi...

Re: California nurses union plans holiday strike over PPE

#58

Post by jfengel » Fri, Dec 18, 2020, 5:20 PM UTC

sremani wrote: post #43

ashtonkem wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an American, it has been incredibly demoralizing seeing one institution after another fail miserably. I didn’t have high expectations, but oh boy did we fall way short.

"Americans will always do the right thing - after exhausting all the alternatives." -- Churchill 3 vaccines in record time.. I know J&J is still pending. I want the Healthcare/CDC/FDA pipeline to be improved.. Without American ingenuity the world is a much bleaker place.

The Pfizer vaccine was developed in Germany. The Oxford vaccine was developed in the UK. Of the approved vaccines, only the Moderna vaccine was developed in the US (and it's actually being manufactured in Switzerland). The J&J vaccine is being developed in Belgium.

That's not to say that the US hasn't been playing important roles, both now and in the research that enabled this. But "without American ingenuity" we'd be using vaccines from several other countries (including several more that are currently in development, as well as China and Russia, who have approved vaccines already in use).

Re: California nurses union plans holiday strike over PPE

#59

Post by alecco » Fri, Dec 18, 2020, 5:20 PM UTC

soperj wrote: post #55

cronix wrote: post #50

In 2006, CA Gov. Schwarzenegger spent $200 Million dollars on stockpiling PPE and ventilators. This was on the heel of the Swine Flu in order to leave the state better prepared in case of another pandemic. The stockpile took about $5 Million a year to maintain after the initial $200M purchase. In 2011, CA Gov. Brown got rid of the program to save that $5M/yr. https://revealnews.org/article/california-created-a-massiv…

Swine flu pandemic was in 2009. Your timeline is off.

Article says avian flu. Not important to OP's point.

Re: California nurses union plans holiday strike over PPE

#60

Post by cronix » Fri, Dec 18, 2020, 5:20 PM UTC

soperj wrote: post #55

cronix wrote: post #50

In 2006, CA Gov. Schwarzenegger spent $200 Million dollars on stockpiling PPE and ventilators. This was on the heel of the Swine Flu in order to leave the state better prepared in case of another pandemic. The stockpile took about $5 Million a year to maintain after the initial $200M purchase. In 2011, CA Gov. Brown got rid of the program to save that $5M/yr. https://revealnews.org/article/california-created-a-massiv…

Swine flu pandemic was in 2009. Your timeline is off.

Sorry, it was "avian flu". From the article...

> In 2006, citing the threat of avian flu, then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced the state would invest hundreds of millions of dollars in a powerful set of medical weapons to deploy in the case of large-scale emergencies and natural disasters such as earthquakes, fires and pandemics.