Nurses and other health care workers need personal protective equipment (PPE) now. Use the Defense Production Act for PPE.

While politicians promise PPE on TV, those of us on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis are left to wonder: Where is it?

It is the responsibility of health care employers to provide safe workplaces, including proper PPE, to all their staff. And it is up to our elected officials to make sure the government is doing everything in its power to dramatically expand production and distribution of the equipment we need to protect nurses, other health care workers, and our patients.

I demand that President Trump immediately exercise the full presidential powers under the Defense Production Act to ramp up production of N95 respirators and other critical personal protective equipment and to ensure the immediate and continued distribution of this equipment to nurses and other health care workers on the front lines.