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Al= l 50 U.S. states have now reported coronavirus deaths

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All 50 U.S. states have now reported= coronavirus deaths

Nurse Mike Gulick was meticulous about not bringing the coronavir= us home to his wife and their 2-year-old daughter. He=E2=80=99d stop at= a hotel after work just to take a shower. He=E2=80=99d wash his clothes in= Lysol disinfectant. They did a tremendous amount of hand-washing.

Bu= t at Providence Saint John=E2=80=99s Health Center in Santa Monica, Califor= nia, Gulick and his colleagues worried that caring for infected patients wi= thout first being able to don an N95 respir= ator mask was risky. The N95 mask filters out 95% of all airborne parti= cles, including ones too tiny to be blocked by regular masks. But hospital = administrators said they weren=E2=80=99t necessary and didn=E2=80=99t provi= de them, he said.

Then, last week, a nurse on Gulick=E2=80=99s ward t= ested positive for the coronavirus, which causes COVID-19. The next day, do= ctors doing rounds on their ward asked the nurses why they weren=E2=80=99t = wearing N95 masks, Gulick said, and told them they should have better prote= ction.

For Gulick, that was it. He and a handful of nurses told their= managers they wouldn=E2=80=99t enter COVID-19 patient rooms without N95 ma= sks.

=E2=80=9CI went into nursing with a passion for helping those wh= o are most vulnerable and being an advocate for those who couldn=E2=80=99t = have a voice for themselves, but not under the conditions we=E2=80=99re cur= rently under,=E2=80=9D Gulick said.

The hospital suspended him and ni= ne colleagues, according to the National Nurses United, which represents th= em. Ten nurses are now being paid but are not allowed to return to work pen= ding an investigation from human resources, the union said.

They are = among hundreds of doctors, nurses and other health care workers across the = country who say they=E2=80=99ve been asked to work without adequate protect= ion. Some have taken part in protests or lodged formal complaints. Others a= re buying or even making their own supplies.

One nurse was fired afte= r refusing to remove her own N95 mask and sterile gloves and instead wear a= =E2=80=9Ctissue-paper thin=E2=80=9D surgical mask while on duty except for= when caring for a known COVID-19 patient.

Dawn Kulach was fired on April 10 by Virtua Health's ho= spital in Voorhees, New Jersey, shortly after she recovered from pneumonia = caused by the virus and returned to work. Kulach said in an interview that = it was unsafe to work without the N95 mask because the virus is circulating= in hospital air ducts and there's no way to know which patients have the v= irus. She also insisted on wearing sterile gloves to use a computer and oth= er shared items at the nursing station.

Virtua's chief clinical offic= er, Dr. Reginald Blaber, said in a statement that the hospital now provides= N95 masks to staff caring for patients with the virus or awaiting test res= ults, and to staff in high-risk areas like the ICU and ER. Staff in other a= reas are issued one surgical mask daily.

Guidelines from the Centers = for Disease Control and Prevention don=E2=80=99t require N95 masks for COVI= D-19 caregivers, but many hospitals are opting for the added protection bec= ause the infection is extremely contagious. The C= DC said Wednesday at least 9,200 health care workers have been infected.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such= as fever and cough, that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especia= lly older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause mor= e severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.

Saint John=E2=80=99= s said that, as of Tuesday, it was providing N95 masks to all nurses caring= for COVID-19 patients and those awaiting test results. Its statement said = the hospital had increased its supply and was disinfecting masks daily.

=E2=80=9CIt=E2=80=99s no secret there is a national shortage,=E2=80=9D s= aid the statement. The hospital would not comment on the suspended nurses.<= /p>

Angela Gatdula, a Saint John's nurse who fell ill with COVID-19, said= she asked hospital managers why doctors were wearing N95s but nurses weren= =E2=80=99t. She says they told her the CDC said surgical masks were enough = to keep her safe.

Then she was hit with a dry cough, severe body ache= s and joint pain.

=E2=80=9CWhen I got the phone call that I was posit= ive, I got really scared,=E2=80=9D she said.

She=E2=80=99s recovering= and plans to return to work next week.

=E2=80=9CThe next nurse that = gets this might not be lucky. They might require hospitalization. They migh= t die,=E2=80=9D she said.

As COVID-19 cases soared in March, the U.S.= was hit with a critical shortage of medical supplies including N95s, which= are mostly made in China. In response, the CDC lowered its standard for he= alth care workers=E2=80=99 protective gear, recommending they use bandannas if they run out of the= masks.

Some exasperated health care workers have complained to t= he Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

=E2=80=9CI ... fear= retribution for being a whistleblower and plead to please keep me anonymou= s,=E2=80=9D wrote a Tennessee medical worker, who complained staffers were = not allowed to wear their own masks if they weren=E2=80=99t directly treati= ng COVID-19 patients.

In Oregon, a March 26 complaint warned that mas= ks were not being provided to nurses working with suspected COVID-19 patien= ts. Another Oregon complaint alleged nurses =E2=80=9Care told that wearing = a mask will result in disciplinary action.=E2=80=9D

Some are taking t= o the streets.

On Wednesday, nurse unions in New York, Massachusetts,= Michigan, Illinois, California and Pennsylvania scheduled actions at their= hospitals and posted on social media using the hashtag PPEoverProfit. PPE,= or personal protective equipment, refers to items such as masks and gowns.=

Nurses at Kaiser Permanente=E2=80=99s Fresno Medical Center in Calif= ornia demanded more protective supplies at a protest during their shift cha= nge Tuesday. The hospital, like many in the U.S., requires nurses to use on= e N95 mask per day, which has raised concerns about carrying the infection = from patient to patient.

Ten nurses from the facility have tested pos= itive, Kaiser said. Three have been admitted to the hospital, and one is in= critical care, protest organizers said.

Wade Nogy, a Kaiser senior v= ice president, denied union claims that nurses have been unnecessarily expo= sed.

=E2=80=9CKaiser Permanente has years of experience managing high= ly infectious diseases, and we are safely treating patients who have been i= nfected with this virus, while protecting other patients, members and emplo= yees,=E2=80=9D Nogy said.

Amy Arlund, a critical care nurse at the fa= cility, said that before the pandemic, following infection control protocol= s they=E2=80=99re currently using would have been grounds for disciplinary = action.

=E2=80=9CAnd now it=E2=80=99s like they=E2=80=99ve thrown all= those standards out the window as if they never existed,=E2=80=9D Arlund s= aid. =E2=80=9CIt=E2=80=99s beyond me.=E2=80=9D

___

AP Medical W= riter Linda A. Johnson contributed to this report from Trenton, N.J.

= ___

This story has been corrected to reflect that the name of the org= anization that represents nurses is National Nurses United, not National Nu= rses Union.

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