How low can he go? As healthcare workers and governors beg and plead for masks, gowns and other personal protective equipment (PPE), Donald Trump replies with this message.

One of those complaining is registered nurse Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, She delivered this message to the president during a protest in the Bronx today saying:

We are dying. We are getting sick. It doesn’t matter how many ventilators we get, if we are dead and cannot run the ventilators. If respiratory therapists, doctors, nurses, front line caregivers are sick, are dying, there won’t be anyone left to take care of the public. We are demanding to invoke the Defense Production Act so that all of our factories can spin out PPE for us, ventilators for us, materials that we need to save people from this pandemic that will only get worse.

RN Laura Ucik added:

Every day when I go to work, I feel like a sheep going to slaughter. my colleagues and I are writing our last will and testament. I am 28 years old. we fear we may not survive this pandemic and yet we show up every day to this hospital to take care of our community.

Meanwhile, owners of the New England Patriots sent the team plane to China because supplies in Massachusetts are so low.

And The Washington Post is reporting protective gear for medical workers in the national stockpile is nearly gone.

All this comes just days after Trump suggested health care workers were taking supplies “out the back door.”

The New York Times says the Defense Product Act (DPA) “gives the government the power to subpoena firms and force companies to fulfill the government’s contractual obligations before those of other clients.” 

In March Trump appointed Peter Navarro, the White House trade adviser, to be the coordinator of the DPA but the president has been reluctant to use it.

Late Thursday, the White House said Trump did use the act, but just to aid companies building ventilators for coronavirus patients to receive the supply of materials they need. There was no mention of masks or other materials. According to Reuters:

In a memo released by the White House, Trump directed the U.S. Health and Human Services secretary to use his authority to help facilitate the supply of ventilator materials for six companies – General Electric Co (GE.N), Hill-Rom Holdings Inc (HRC.N), Medtronic Plc (MDT.N), Resmed Inc (RMD.N), Royal Philips N.V. and Vyaire Medical Inc.