Emergency physicians are risking their lives every day to wage war on COVID-19 and they are doing so without access to basic protective equipment, directly endangering themselves, their families, and their patients.

Physicians from across the country are reporting not having masks, making their own personal protective equipment (PPE), bringing anything they can from home to help. The hashtag #GetMePPE features physicians sharing their struggle to obtain even the most basic of protective equipment, and tagging their representatives of every political stripe in a plea for help.

The United States government must do more. When proper precautions are not taken hospital workers are placed at great risk, and patients stand to be further exposed. This issue supersedes political affiliation, all leaders must address the problem.

We stand with our partners in emergency medicine to call on all elected officials to exhaust every possible path to rapidly increase production of PPE and prioritize front line care providers in all distribution efforts.

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