ER Doctor: Trump Is ‘Not Listening To People On The Front Lines’ | The Last Word | MSNBC

What is it? Which is it? The government invokes its ability to get the manufacturer of these things or it's not because we do it. The messages are completely clear from everyone in the medical and public health community I've spoken to in recent days there are about to be critical shortages, yes, and we are in full preparation mode for what's coming in the next few days. weeks and at our hospital and at hospitals across our system in West Michigan we are conserving mass. By using the same dough for an entire shift and storing it in a paper bag and sterilizing our hands as we put on and take off the mask as we enter each room, we understand that with the influx of patients we are anticipating.

These supplies are going to run out at some point, so I don't know what they're doing behind the scenes with certainly the mixed messages from the president or if he's stating that no one has told him it's a problem or that the

doctor

s are gone. I'm not telling you that if you're looking right now, there's a

doctor

here, you know, and I represent a lot of doctors across this country, we need your help, we need leadership on this, in this regard, dr. David, so let's break this down for a second, let's say I don't believe all this hype, I'm kind of consuming the information that the president is putting out there that anyone who needs a test can get tested, there is no shortage, we're not.

I need to invoke this kind of thing and suddenly I'm a man of a certain age, I have a heart attack or something else happens or my appendix needs treatment and I call 911 and I go to a hospital and I find out that there are beds that are problematic or you've been using the same mask all day or the Red Cross says it could be two weeks before we run out of blood. This is not just about the coronavirus, this is about our entire medical system, absolutely, I mean our doctors' committee, the Committee to Protect Medicare, is advocating for affordable healthcare, you know, before this It will start, after we finally see the exit, but this is what I tell

people

who try to say: "Well, I won't be affected or I have such a disease." I myself am unlikely to be affected and we see young, healthy

people

on ventilators, you know, with this crisis, but if our hospitals are overwhelmed with coronavirus patients, what happens?

That's what worries me. I've been serving in my community for over 20 years or almost 20 years and you know I'm committed to serving those people and you know we have to make tough decisions from time to time. I don't want those decisions to be difficult because my government has allowed me to get depressed and not get us the equipment we needed. You know, if he believes that anyone who wants a test can get one. I can tell you that I worked the

last

three nights and just a few nights ago, on one particular shift, I saw a handful of patients, every single one of them should have gotten a test if they were available, but we are rationing the tests because they just aren't there. .

You know, we're saving them for the sickest deposition, sending people home and telling them yes, no. I want to interrupt you, but let's be clear about this, in fact, let me, I'm going to ask my control room to play an abbreviated version of a response to the conversation between our PBS colleague, yes, Michel Sindoor, and the president about the availability for perform tests. Let's listen to this. They are Americans and they can't. I don't hear it. Dr. Davidson is that a possibility. I mean, I'm not in the business of accusing the president of lying if I don't know.

Otherwise, I can't imagine how any American has heard that there is no shortage of tests for people who can. I need them well, if you don't hear them, you don't hear them because we have been crying out like a chorus of doctors, nurses and people in the sector of health care throughout this country, and I will tell you that there is a shortage that we are rationing in the United States. In the United States of America, we are rationing these tests. Our first case in this country was the same day as the first case in South Korea and they were testing 10,000 a day starting a week later and we are still fighting in my state and I know it. than in states across the country, but at my hospital again, I saw a handful of people, five people on a night shift and none of them were able to get a test because, frankly, they just told us we don't have the ability to to do that.

This is coming from the state, you know they have limited supplies. I understand why the state is doing this, but for the president to suggest that you know again, I guess I wouldn't be in the business of calling him a liar, but he obviously isn't.

listening

to the people on the

front

lines

dr. Davidson, let's talk about remedies for this, we have heard all kinds of things or people asking the National Guard, the Army Corps of Engineers, to build emergency hospitals so that the defense law can be invoked so that manufacturing companies can be affected. To do some of these things, others are calling for a near-total shutdown.

Now there are many people who are worried about the economic situation and say what would happen if you closed the country for a month. Tell me what you think should happen. Yes, our organization came out very strongly today at the NAR and we are supporting a national shutdown, essentially a national shutdown, you know, and I think this has to be for a defined period of time, but this has to be in conjunction with the massive testing we all hear about. the increase and what we know we can handle the number of patients that we eventually get in a period of maybe four months, six months we can't handle that same number of patients in the span of a month or two months, so if we can Really dedicating ourselves to informing you of, essentially, a lockdown where people are taking extreme social distancing measures combined with a lot of testing being done on both the healthy and the sick so that we can really identify where these hot spots are. and then we can begin. resume business in certain parts of the country in certain communities and do so safely while we are monitoring.

You know this lack of testing has left us behind, but the lack of decisive leadership in this regard is putting us even further behind the eight ball right now. is all we want now is a national approach to this national problem the virus just doesn't care if it crosses the Illinois border from Indiana into Illinois if Illinois is shutting down but Indiana isn't you know those Illinois people are protected my governor in Michigan it's protecting us, but you know we need this in all 50 states