Community Well-Being: The 'Patron Saint of PPE'

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC, and now we continue our 10-part end of the year gratitude series with 10 heroes of community well-being for the year 2020. We are bringing on 10 heroes or leaders of community groups who may not make the headlines most of the time, but who have helped make life livable in this year of so much grief and so much need and so much thirsting for justice and equality.

There are many more groups out there doing great work, of course, but these 10 have been brought to our attention, some by listeners, some by colleagues or friends. We are sharing these 10 stories to represent all the ways that some of us are serving, the many of us in need of help right now. We will also have a related live Zoom event this Wednesday night to honor three champions of community well-being at the-- Station is a generously putting on this event and creating this prize called "The Lehrer Prize for Community Well-Being."

You can make a free online reservation to join us on Zoom on Wednesday night at wnyc.org/lehrerprize. Today, I'm joined by Rhonda Roland Shearer, founder of a non-profits Art Science Research Laboratory and Cut Red Tape 4 Heroes, a project of the Art Science Research Laboratory with volunteer support from housing works. Cut Red Tape 4 Heroes puts free PPEs directly in the hands of New York City and Miami area hospital workers and others at risk of coronavirus. Rhonda, thank you so much for joining us and thank you for your work. Hello, welcome to WNYC.

Rhonda Roland Shearer: Thank you for inviting me. It's a privilege and a pleasure. Thank you for supporting communities out there at the front line, trying to assist New Yorkers. Of course, we all know the real heroes are those that march through the front doors of hospitals every day, risking their lives without really concern. I see it every time we're at hospitals in the front, passing out PPE that they with good cheer do their duty, and when you offer free PPE, they're just bolstered, and it's a morale booster for them.

Brian: I'm seeing that when the pandemic hit, you decided to borrow more than $600,000 on a home equity line of credit to buy wholesale personal protective equipment for hospital workers. Do I have that right?

Rhonda: That's true, and actually is now, it's about 850,000 and thanks to the generosity of New Yorkers and others around the country, my debt is down to 350,000. We also get in-kind donations, but unless you had the money, this is back in April, end of March, you were shut out, and so I did something similar during 9/11 where a developed safety company gave me a $1 million line of credit and I was able to buy equipment and they didn't even call it "PPE" back then, but P100 half-mask equipment that preserved what was being lost at the front lines by first responders who couldn't have safe protection from the toxic environment at ground zero.

Brian: Of course, it's outrageous that anybody would have had to put up her own money to how equip hospital workers with personal protective equipment in a pandemic. Why was it necessary?

Rhonda: When you think of the broader picture, hospital workers go to and from the hospital, they go to their families, they go shopping, what's an underground marketplace for PPE or the amount of money that hospital workers have to spend buying their own PPE. I've had doctors tell me they've spent $7,000 or more of their own money to make sure their colleagues and coworkers had PPE.

This is really not widely known in the public, the burden of buying PPE by the healthcare workers, and similarly, you're having the poor, we were going to the front lines when we started to going to public housing projects, you even had an infection rate up to 41%, so we rushed in, making that a priority, and people were making choices. Do I buy food or do I buy masks for my family? This is just a sad situation.

Brian: Part of what you're saying is, hospitals were giving their staffs PPEs for use on the job, but they still needed to fund their own PPEs for the rest of their lives?

Rhonda: In addition to that, though, frankly, the reports from the workers are that they aren't given enough PPE. In fact, we responded last week to where we gave out 65,000 pieces of PPE to over 1,500 Montefiore hospital in the Bronx, their workers.

Brian: Really? So, even now?

Rhonda: Yes, even now, the protest that they had was in part not just staffing, but over PPE shortages. The hospitals really have a situation where they're trying to protect their reputations and don't really want to admit or accept donations even when there's an objective shortage. We've actually had a bit of a struggle now. Montefiore, to their good judgment and kindness, allowed us to set up a big truck. It says, "Show hospital ID and get free PPE."

We set up tables and we put the PPE directly in the hands of the workers. Therefore, we're hearing from them, we're hearing their stories. We're connecting with them. We're making new friendships and connections on an ongoing basis, but not all hospitals were as welcoming as Montefiore. We actually had hospital administration come out and say, "We don't want you here."

What I heard as feedback was, they didn't like the optics of workers lined up in front of the hospital getting free PPE, even if they needed it. They made the choice that rather than provide for their workers that they would prevent, but they can't prevent it when we set up on a sidewalk and across the street with our truck, which we would do, but it is quite a shock to hear this from various hospitals that they don't want us there.

Brian: I think what a lot of hospitals have said, certainly at the beginning of the pandemic in New York, when things were so intense around here, was that the reason they were asking members of their staffs to reuse PPEs is because they couldn't get any, not because they didn't want to distribute them. How much was that a problem for you?

Rhonda: Put it this way, because I was at the front line during 9/11, I already had contacts and an ability how to acquire PPE in an emergency. It's highly competitive with sharp elbows, and while I would be buying a 500,000 3-ply surgical masks for

$0.65, FEMA would be paying $1.20. This is how it was going down. In terms of the whole PPE stockpile situation, that's really not explored.

If you think about it, one person's stockpile is another person's hoarding, and none of this is transparent. You don't know if the hospital's holding back a million masks and making the decision to have their employees stretch-out use. We have no idea. There's no transparency. I suspect that a lot of that is going on because the CDC recommended conservation methods, which included having employees use it more than once when they really shouldn't be.

The other things that aren't discussed, that are a bit shocking to me, was here I get, let's say 500,000, 3-ply masks in from China, from a good, reputable distributor, but then I get Chinese documentation that claims that these are verified to be holding to the standards of FDA, but I have no idea. There's no way of independently testing these masks, let alone say, rubbing alcohol. It says on the label, "70%," but you have no idea if it is 70% in hospitals, nor do government agencies. No one is verifying whether these meet standards, and I found that very shocking.

Brian: Interesting. I know there's at least one website, ConsumerLab, that reviews masks for effectiveness. I don't know if there are others as well. How many masks do you think you've-- Did you want to say something about that or--?

Rhonda: I was just going to say that it's very difficult to find a lab, and it's very expensive. The fact is is that when hospitals get their orders in, they're not sending it out for verification before they distribute it. There are not really tools. In terms of what we've totally given out so far is, it's over three million pieces of PPE.

Brian: Wow.

Rhonda: That would include thousands of gallons of hand sanitizer and three-ply masks. We don't give out N-95s because those need to be fit-tested to be safe.

Brian: KN95's the same thing?

Rhonda: No, and that's gone. That's been one of those issues where they are in foreign countries considered respirators. You have a distinction between masks, like barrier masks, and respirators. The respirators, you can recognize them as they have often yellow elastics and they have two elastics. They're not two-ear loops. If they're ear loops, you're not going to have the seal around your face, that really keeps you safe at a 90 plus level of a barrier to the virus.

Brian: That's to say that KN95s are not the same thing as N95s?

Rhonda: That's correct, yes. One way to recognize that is the ear loops, because you're not going to get a seal, and also, N95s should be coming in sizes, small, medium, large, and the idea of the fit-testing is critical, and they're very uncomfortable. That's why often you read that people are discouraged from using them, not just from the point of view that the hospital workers need them, but that they're uncomfortable. They do cause tissue damage. Whereas the other, the barrier  

masks, like the three-ply surgical masks that you see are adequate probably for most people, but it's very difficult. There's not enough supply in the world to really make available N95s to every American. That's for sure.

Brian: We're almost out of time with Rhonda Roland Shearer, founder of the nonprofits Art Science Research Laboratory and Cut Red Tape 4 Heroes. Maybe you've seen her written up with the nickname, the "Patron Saint of PPE," which, you could tell from this conversation, is richly deserved. We're almost out of time. Just tell people, now that you've taken $800,000 of personal loans on your home equity line of credit, et cetera, and defrayed some of that, how can people donate if they are inspired by your cause, and do you need volunteers? We have 30 seconds left.

Rhonda: Yes, we definitely need volunteers. It's been a privilege to work with our large group of volunteers, and no one's gotten ill, which is fantastic. Cut Red Tape 4 Heroes goes directly to the GoFundMe page, which also gives information of how to donate directly to Art Science Research Lab, which is a 501c3, but all donations are tax-deductible.

Brian: Cut Red Tape 4, number 4, cutredtape4heroes.org.

Rhonda: Yes, dot org. Yes, that's correct. I hope to hear from people, and every little bit helps. Right now, as you know, we're going into a very dangerous phase.

Brian: Absolutely.

Rhonda: We want to be able to have both in-kind donations and cash donations, so we can continue to serve these such deserving communities, these nurses and doctors.

Brian: Rhonda Roland Shearer, the patron saint of PPEs. Thank you for contributing to community well-being in 2020.

Rhonda: Thank you so much. It was a privilege talking to you.

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