Dear Colleagues in STEM,
As you know, there has been an ongoing challenge to clinically test patient samples and treat patients for COVID-19 infection. Many hospitals are facing a severe shortage of medical supplies, including personal protective equipment (PPE). Many have less than a one week supply; some have less than a day’s worth of certain supplies (see media links below). Our medical professionals are at severe risk while treating highly infectious patients, and have an order of magnitude higher mortality rate than the patients themselves as a result. As such, we are asking our local communities of academic and industry STEM labs as well as any other institutions or companies that use PPE in their operations to help provide a short-term stopgap by donating their local hospitals with supplies until national efforts are able to compensate.
We are asking organizations if you have personal protective equipment items in stock, and can provide them to hospitals in your area.
If you do have these supplies and would be willing to donate please check out our donation page: PPE Donations
We are asking hospitals and other medical facilities what your needs are and will send donors your way. If you’re a medical facility in need of supplies, please check our requester page: PPE Requests
PPE needed
- N95 respirators
- Surgical masks
- Protective glasses/goggles
- Nitrile gloves
- Head covers
- Face shields
- Disinfectant wipes
We understand that many of you might not be able to make the decision of whether to donate supplies yourselves – in which case, we ask that you discuss with your PIs, advisors, lab managers, staff scientists, directors, ANYONE who would be able to say yes to such a request. We deeply appreciate your time and generosity.
Even if your organization is not able to donate, we would still appreciate it if you could please disseminate this information widely to anyone you know who might be able to help. Thank you again!
Media Links about this issue
March 17, 2020 – “Hospital Workers Make Masks From Office Supplies Amid U.S. Shortage”, Bloomberg
March 17, 2020 – “Got Extra Masks Or Goggles? Mass. Hospitals Already Running Short, Ask For Donations” WBUR
PPE Link 