MSSNY Statement on Vice President Pence’s Comments About COVID-19 and PPE Availability

“MSSNY is very concerned by the comments from the Vice-President today with regard to containment of the Covid-19 pandemic and availability of personal protective equipment (PPE). The record number of new cases across the country suggests that the curve, in fact, has not been flattened.

“New York’s physicians saw first-hand the suffering of patients and their families that occurred when there is a rapid incline in Covid-19 cases. We do not wish to return to such devastation. It took an enormous ‘team effort’ between our health care workers, Governor Cuomo and other government officials, and sadly of course, the sacrifices of the citizens of our great state, to not only flatten New York’s curve, but also to get to a point where we now have the lowest hospitalization levels since mid-March. With a disease that knows no state boundaries, we are deeply concerned by the significant increases in infection rates in other states.

“Additionally, physicians in New York State continue to face enormous challenges in obtaining PPE that is slowing the ability of community-based physicians to return to treating patients in-person on a regular basis again. Too many vendors sell only to government or large health systems—ignoring community physicians or make PPE available in minimal quantities at grossly inflated prices. Instead of asserting that there are ‘no outstanding requests’, we would ask Vice President Pence and the Trump Administration to confer with the physician community in New York and across the country to assess their challenges in obtaining PPE, and then, work to address these blatant supply chain problems.

“Given the incredibly infectious nature of Covid-19, now is not the time to rest on our laurels. We need all of our government officials to continue to work together to ‘reverse the curve’ in states where the numbers are rising and ‘protect the curve’ in states where Covid-19 infections and hospitalizations have receded.”