Dear Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Minister of Health Patty Hajdu, provincial and territorial Premiers and Ministers of Health:
Our front line health care workers are already running out of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as N95 masks, surgical masks, gloves, and gowns. We also need access to hoods, face shields, goggles, and other protective equipment. There is a critical shortage of COVID-19 test kits, ventilators, hand sanitizer, and medications that might treat COVID-19 patients.
This is unacceptably dangerous for health care workers and, in turn, the public.
We understand the shortage is because many items were manufactured in China and Italy and that there is a global shortage.
We urge you to mount a war-like effort to
1. Repurpose factories and skilled workers now to manufacture these items domestically and prioritize distribution to health care workers, who are not only human beings with their own hopes and dreams, but offer irreplaceable skills during a pandemic;
2. Call on individuals to donate sealed items that they have stockpiled to hospitals and clinics, and educate them about scarcity;
3. Research how we can reuse existing stock more safely in the face of COVID-19 with bleach, UV light, or other techniques, and the possibility of reusable cloth masks or gowns;
4. Liberate any stockpiled PPE from the SARS epidemic. Many of us would be willing to sign waivers and use expired PPE rather than nothing;
5. Buy any possible stock from China and other countries;
6. Expand COVID-19 testing capabilities and treatment facilities;
7. Repurpose distilleries to manufacture hand sanitizer; and
8. Manufacture chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil), and anti-virals that could potentially treat COVID-19 patients but are currently backordered and unavailable.
In the meantime, it would help our efforts greatly if you legislated every individual to self-isolate.
Sincerely,
Melissa Yuan-Innes, MD
Bridget Thompson, MD
Anna Mayer, MD
Carol Loffelmann, MD
Linda Sun, MD
Renee Givari, MD
Cassy Shitong Wang, MD
Danielle Major Galasso, MD
Rae Brager, MD
Kieu Phung, MD
Najma Ahmed, MD
Jolene Drake, MD
Caroline Juszczynski, MD
Audrey Moreau, MD
Yalda Mirmesdagh, MD
Kelvin Chan, MD
Lidia Stasiak, MD
Elin Raymond, MD
Carmel Moluk Razzaghi, MD
Katherine Kasha, MD
Sarah Rinaldi, MD
Kerri Bossert, MD
Julie Gagnon, MD
Oluwatoni Oyewole, MD
Roberta Mackenzie, MD
Aliza Aziz, MD
Deepa Soni, MD
Valerie Cyr, MD
Stephanie Sischek, MD
Tiffany Parsons, MD
Emily Thompson, MD
Gregory L. Smith, MD
Irfan Moledina, MD
Sophia Bianchi, MD
Kenton Nicholson, MD
Samantha Jean, MD
Lindsay MacDonald, MD
Laura Coughlan, MD
Tammy Matthew, MD
James Matthew, MD
Noelle Carrier, MD
Penny Yin, MD
Andrea Fulmore, MD
Nicholas Blanchette, MD
Janneme Frouws, MD
Melissa Gross, MD
Christine Suess, MD
Bryan Fong, MD
Nicole Vosters, MD
Averil Ivsins, MD
Aarthi Rajagopalan, MD
Rama Koneru, MD
Anne Pomerleau, MD
Matthias Ziller, MD
Xue Jiao Li, MD
Stephanie Popiel, MD
Karen Rivera, MD
Elsa Maciagowski, MD
Melanie Hall, MD
Mark Tsai, MD
Daniela Porter, MD
Adriana Cipolletti, MD
