Cut Red Tape 4 Heroes donates PPE to those who need it most. In 3 months, 725,000 items of PPE handed out to more than 110,000 hospital, nursing home and homeless shelter workers, veterans and public housing residents. Woman takes out $1 million loan to buy PPE for NYC healthcare workers
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Cut Red Tape 4 Heroes
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Nurses, doctors and other hospital staff have shared with us the risks they are forced to take because they aren’t getting enough or the right PPE to deal with the pandemic. After being told for years not to re-use PPE, medical workers are telling us they are now told to try to stretch out PPE use, they aren’t given any PPE for home use, or enough for emergency coding responses. That’s unacceptable, so we jumped into action.
Cut Red Tape 4 Heroes is putting PPE in the hands of those who need it most. Sponsored by the New York City not-for-profit Art Science Research Laboratory, Cut Red Tape 4 Heroes responded to the urgent need for PPE from those putting their lives on the line during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In April, Cut Red Tape 4 Heroes launched by handing out 25,000 items of PPE including KN95s, 3-ply surgical masks, face shields, and hand sanitizer to nurses, doctors and medical staff at Bellevue hospital. That was just the first of many hospital deliveries we made. In just three months, Cut Red Tape 4 Heroes handed out more than 400,000 items of PPE to more than 30,000 workers at 23 hospital distributions across New York City’s five boroughs and Manhattan.
Cut Red Tape 4 Heroes only gives out FDA-approved items of high standard, and intentionally does not donate N95s because of the need to fit test each N95 brand and manufacturer to a worker. During a crisis, there isn’t time to fit test and that leaves too many workers susceptible to illness because an N95 mask doesn’t fit right or was designed for a much larger or smaller person. The mask that fits a 6’2” doctor won’t fit a 5’2” nurse. We also provide hand sanitizer, PPE for personal use for when workers need to go shopping or take care of a loved one, and we bring hospital workers ear savers, to help ease some of the discomfort from wearing a mask all day.
But even if a hospital has enough PPE for its staff, hospital workers are often left to fend for themselves in finding their own personal PPE. Prices are often ridiculously overpriced; we’ve seen this going into the stores near hospitals when a mask we can buy for 40 cents is priced to $4. If a hospital worker is even able to find the medical-grade PPE they need, it’s a further stab in the back to have to pay a huge markup on basic PPE to stay safe.
“It’s a privilege to be able to ease some of the financial and emotional burdens from our invaluable medical workers,” Cut Red Tape 4 Heroes founder Rhonda Roland Shearer says. “The stories I’ve heard from nurses, doctors, and security guards are moving, and the least we can do is make sure those who take care of us when we are ill have the gear they need to feel safe.”
Shearer took out a nearly $1 million loan against her own home to buy PPE for workers in need after seeing the countless, heartbreaking stories about NYC hospital workers not having the PPE they need. She is fundraising now to pay for the face masks, face shields, isolation gowns, gloves and other PPE items she bought.
As New York City’s hospitalization rates lowered, as we all know, COVID didn’t just “go away.” Overall, New York City boasted a 1% positivity rate, but some zip codes, largely in poorer and minority neighborhoods and neglected by many organizations, reported up to a 50% positivity rate. Cut Red Tape 4 Heroes responded by heading into those areas and bringing public housing residents and veterans organizations in hot spot zip codes PPE.
In all, Cut Red Tape 4 Heroes has now handed out more than 725,000 items of PPE to more than 110,000 hospital, nursing home and homeless shelter workers, as well as veterans, the homeless, public housing residents and others at risk. We are continuing this essential work with hospital and public housing distributions on the calendar so we can respond to PPE shortages and needs as they occur. Our van also has brought PPE to organizations helping the underserved and children. For more information, please visit Cut Red Tape 4 Heroes
If you know of an urgent PPE need in the New York City area, please alert us at [email protected].
References
Cut Red Tape for Heroes
New York's Patron Saint of PPE Went $600,000 in Debt to Outfit Workers...
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Art Science Research Laboratory