Wait! What?
It’s true, as you think about the Covid19 virus and try to take a break from the news, here’s some good news! All over the country, people are creating new patterns of community and are reaching out in one of the best ways to support frontline providers of care.
And right now, I know many of you want to “Do Something” and get involved because the very best antidote to the feelings of being overwhelmed is to stop, pause, breathe and ask yourself, “How can I be of service?”
Comfort and Caring
We all have our own barometers for comfort and caring. Remember after 9-11, people would drop off cookies or baked goods to their local Fire Departments? Well, as much as your front-line providers would love some baked goods, I mean who wouldn’t benefit from some chocolate right now? What they really want is more Personal Protective Equipment, known as PPE, including masks.
The truth is that the demand for masks is more than what we have available right here, right now in hospitals across the country. I’m talking to friends and colleagues who are caring for people in hospitals, clinics, offices, urgent care settings. Colleagues from Tennessee to Tacoma, Boston to Baton Rouge and they all say the same thing. We are running out of supplies.
And yet, the tremendous outpouring of support and of help from people everywhere is what I look to and am grateful for. People reaching out to help one another and do what they can. We can’t all become nurses or doctors or respiratory therapists overnight, but there are some things we can do, and here’s one.
If you want to participate, here’s a link from UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health for hospitals all over the country who need masks.
And, if you are doing some spring cleaning and happen to find some N95 masks in a corner cupboard or a bag somewhere, please donate them. I put the word out on Next Door and neighbors have been dropping off N95 masks all day.
We will come through this together and we will be stronger for it.
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