{"id":89836,"date":"2020-03-26T01:34:47","date_gmt":"2020-03-26T01:34:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sen-michael-bennet-gives-fiery-speech-lamenting-shortage-of-medical-supplies\/"},"modified":"2020-03-26T01:34:47","modified_gmt":"2020-03-26T01:34:47","slug":"sen-michael-bennet-gives-fiery-speech-lamenting-shortage-of-medical-supplies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sen-michael-bennet-gives-fiery-speech-lamenting-shortage-of-medical-supplies\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Michael Bennet gives fiery speech lamenting shortage of medical supplies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=361a7645-37fe-4d49-a87a-676cdb50c13c&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"1121\" height=\"669\" alt=\"U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet gave an impassioned speech Monday on the Senate floor calling for more to be done to provide medical providers with the medical supplies they need in the fight against coronavirus.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet gave an impassioned speech Monday on the Senate floor calling for more to be done to provide medical providers with the medical supplies they need in the fight against coronavirus.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">YouTube<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>WASHINGTON \u2013 Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., pleaded with Congress and President Donald Trump to do everything in their power to acquire the medical supplies and equipment health professionals and first responders say they need to treat American patients with the coronavirus in a heartfelt speech Monday on the Senate floor.<\/p>\n<p>Bennet brought the frustrations and fears of health care workers across Colorado to the nation\u2019s capital, as senators failed to move forward with a $2 trillion coronavirus bill that would ease the financial impact of the outbreak.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd our medical professionals in Colorado, as in the Commonwealth of Virginia, all across this country, have been begging for us to pay attention to this for months,\u201d Bennet said during his speech.<\/p>\n<p>The chief medical officer at Denver Health, one of the leading hospitals in the country, said they do not have enough tests or swabs to keep pace. And the turnaround time for tests is taking much too long, Bennet said. The medical staff are \u201cburning through\u201d protective equipment and will soon be forced to put two patients on a single ventilator, Bennet said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are failing, Mr. President. We are failing to address the seriousness of the public health crisis this country is facing,\u201d Bennet said, referring to Trump\u2019s statement that handling the medical supply shortages is up to state governors, not the federal government.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pIQINqst0MU\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The Department of Health and Human Services estimates the United States will need 3.5 billion masks over the next year to fight the pandemic. But there are only 35 million masks available.<\/p>\n<p>Bennet said this is not the fault of health care workers or first responders, but \u201cthey are on the front lines of this war.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe should be ashamed. I am. So the question is, how are we going to make sure our medical community has the supplies and equipment they need,\u201d Bennet asked the divided Senate.<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday that Colorado\u2019s Community Health Centers will receive $1.7 million from the federal government through the coronavirus funding bill passed earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p>The 3rd Congressional District will receive $500,000, including $54,050 for the Southwest Colorado Mental Health Center.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image naviga-align-left alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=dbc558e7-d4d5-4b97-9745-42d5759a09e7&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"396\" height=\"600\" alt=\"Tipton\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Tipton<\/span><span class=\"credit\">du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, said he is also pushing for funding to expand mental health care for the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute tribes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRural Community Health Centers are critical for constituents in rural areas as they are often the sole location to receive care,\u201d Tipton said in a news release.<\/p>\n<p>But the funding won\u2019t mean anything until there are medical supplies to purchase, and Bennet said on the Senate floor that items like masks, swabs and gloves currently cost seven times what they normally cost.<\/p>\n<p>In a brief interview Tuesday with <em>The Durango Herald<\/em>, Tipton talked about medical professionals at Valley View Hospital in Glenwood Springs who are sewing masks to put over N95 respirators and surgical masks so the respirator masks can be reused.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have innovation at the local level that is being replicated in Cortez and as far away as West Virginia,\u201d Tipton said. But \u201cproduction needs to be ramped up in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite the fact that Trump is considering loosening social-distancing restrictions to re-open the economy, Tipton said that \u201cat this point, we need to listen to medical professionals and we should continue to practice social distancing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we loosen restrictions at this point,\u201d Tipton said, \u201cit can increase the spread of the virus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em class=\"mwc_shirttail\">Emily Hayes is a graduate student at American University in Washington, D.C., and an intern for The Durango Herald.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rep. Scott Tipton says, \u2018We should continue to practice social distancing\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":89839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[685,1167,28,668,25],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-89836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-exclude-homepage-video","tag-headlines","tag-public-health","tag-u-s-sen-michael-bennet"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89836"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=89836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}