, Columnist
Why Are N95 Masks Still So Difficult to Get?
The federal government continues to abdicate its responsibility to help provide this essential protective gear.
Hard to get.
Photographer: Angus Mordant/Bloomberg
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Last week — which is to say, six months into a pandemic that has killed more than 185,000 Americans — the American Nurses Association released the results of a survey of its membership. The survey asked whether nurses were still experiencing shortages of personal protective equipment, or PPE.
The answer was a resounding yes. “A third reported that they were out of or short of N95 respirators designed to offer maximum protection in a hospital setting,” according to Bloomberg News. (They are called N95s because they filter out 95% of airborne particulates, including viruses.)