I served as a full-time firefighter/EMT, and before that as a volunteer. There’s an element of the COVID-19 crisis related to our first responders that's getting far too little attention right now. (THREAD)
The strain on our field health care system (fire, police, EMS) was extraordinary before COVID-19, and it's about to get much worse as cases skyrocket in the coming days and weeks.
Yes, there will be many more calls for service because of this virus. But dig beneath the surface and there's a crisis looming that threatens to paralyze our emergency services delivery systems — beyond the response to COVID-19 — if it’s not addressed. I am not being hyperbolic.
The shortage of PPE (personal protective equipment) that will only get more severe over the coming weeks will make the prevelence of COVID-19 far greater than it would otherwise be among first responders.
Paid and volunteer personnel are already in many places responding without adequate PPE. This puts them at heightened risk of contracting COVID-19 and other diseases and can also be dangerous for patients. They’re continuing on because they’re committed to their communities.
What happens when an engine company or ambulance crew without adequate PPE gets exposed to a patient with COVID-19? What happens when a first responder tests positive? Entire crews will be taken out of service as an appropriate precaution. Firehouses could shutter for weeks.
COVID-19 will spread with particular ease through firehouses, police departments, and ambulance companies because even with social distancing protocols in place there will remain necessary contact and close working conditions between these first responders.
It’s important to remember that even at COVID-19’s peak, whenever that may come and however high it is, it will likely constitute a fraction of calls our emergency crews are responding to.
Fire departments alone respond to around 40 million calls a year. As crews face COVID-19-related absences, response times and the quality of responses to all types of emergencies will suffer (many crews are already understaffed because we don't invest in emergency services).
It’s too late to get fully ahead of this, but we can still make a difference. We must move more PPE out of the national stockpile, fight price gouging & do more to push private industry to immediately produce & distribute affordable PPE to our frontline first responders.
Our first responders want to do everything they can to stay in this fight, to keep risking their lives for us. We need to do everything we can to get them the little they’re asking for.
