Please share this widely, especially with any friend or acquaintance who thinks Trump and his minions are doing a fine job. This is the reality of intensive care units in America, before the coronavirus surge even hits hard. 1/
A friend of mine is an intensive care nurse. He can't get tested, even though he works on a ward with patients who are coronavirus positive. That celebrities can find tests so easily makes him righteously bitter. 2/
He's a calm, laid back guy, usually. Before he became an ICU nurse, he had a first career as a news photographer in dicey countries. I've never seen him as upset as he was tonight, not anywhere near. 3/
I don't blame him. The first photo below is the protective gear that Chinese coronavirus ICU medical workers wear. From head to toe, the ICU workers are protect. 4/
The second picture, of a surgical mask, is what my friend and his co-workers in his American ICU unit have been given as protection when they work with coronavirus positive patients. 5/
If this administration had invoked the Defense Production Act when it should have, factories would already be geared up and pumping out more protective gear. 6/
If the Act was being used properly, 3M couldn't charge states four times the normal price for an N95 mask, simply because 3M now has a captive market with no recourse. 7/
There was more than enough advance warning of the disaster that awaits us. Medical workers are the key line of defense, even as we quarantine ourselves. 8/
It behooves each of us to do everything we can to ensure they have the equipment they need to stay safe. All of us need to stay at home to help protect them, if not ourselves. 9/
Instead of facing the reality of coronavirus, our "dear leader," lost in his fantasy world, ignored fact and experts, and saw only the chance for his friends, family and beloved corporations to make a buck. 10/
He pats himself on the back for achievements that have never happened, and for efforts to fight the pandemic that are often figments of his challenged, self-centered imagination. We all will pay for that. Medical workers are all too aware of what awaits many of them. 11/
The DPA needs to be implemented in all its force. I wish all the luck in the world to my brave friend and his co-workers in the ICU, they need it. 12/end 
