Thread by @Aaron_Glantz

1/Internal @DeptVetAffairs email obtained by @reveal.

Management tells front-line nurses at the VA hospital in Durham, NC:

"Effective immediately, staff will be issued (1) surgical mask per week."

Nationally, 9 VA staff are already dead of #COVID19 and 1,281 have tested ++

2/ @DeptVetAffairs has claimed that it has enough PPE and tests, but employees report widespread shortages of PPE, tests and have been told to come to work sick, potentially endangering both themselves and their veteran patients: revealnews.org/article/va-wor…

3/ The email @reveal obtained says VA hospital staff were "warned last week" of shortages & that masks are to be stored in brown bags which have themselves not yet come.

4/ Today, @bkesling of the @WSJ reported

"Veterans Affairs Hospitals Will Give Masks Only to Some Employees, Memos Show

Department is struggling to get more N95 respirators; ‘The fear is palpable’"

wsj.com/articles/veter…

5/ On Tuesday, @JasonLeopold @jtemplon & @a_cormier_ reported that staff at the @DeptVetAffairs hospital staff in LA would get "single surgical mask per shift" unless they had a + #COVID19 case in their unit, then they'd would be issued 1 mask a day

buzzfeednews.com/article/anthon…

6/The @DeptVetAffairs is the largest health system in the country, providing care to 9 million veterans across some 170 hospital systems

It has been neglected by @realDonaldTrump and entered this crisis understaffed, short 44,000 frontline heath workers revealnews.org/article/unders…