Medics, Makers and Mutual Aid
Narrating (Lupita):
On March 4th, the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed that the United States has only 1% of the N95 respirator masks that would be needed if the number of Coronavirus infections reached pandemic levels. N95 Respirator masks are a crucial part of the Personal Protective Equipment, known as PPE, that healthcare workers need to protect themselves from the virus.
IB: So put this into perspective okay, you have an anesthesiologist who went to school for 10 years to become an anesthesiologist. She's literally the most important person in her in the building at her hospital and she's wearing a crowdfunded, homemade, protective shield to intubate patients are dying of Covid-19. That is the epitome of the American Healthcare System
That was Isabelle Bartter, our guest for this week’s episode “Medics, Makers and Mutual Aid”. Isabelle is a web developer living in Portland, Oregon. She has also worked as an Emergency Medical Technician and for UPS and other logistics companies, and she has been an activist for many years. Towards the end of our interview she’ll talk about some of her political experiences, including her time as a street medic in 2017 at the Standing Rock encampment that indigenous people organized to stop the Dakota Access oil pipeline. As the pandemic spread Isabelle knew from working in both ambulances and delivery trucks, that the United States imports most of its PPE supply, and did not have a robust national stockpile nor the infrastructure to produce and deliver it quickly. Healthcare workers in major cities are reporting shortages of equipment and high infection rates among staff. They have organized protests to demand increased production of PPE for Hospitals who are rationing and re-using supplies. Isabelle Barter is one of many volunteers who have worked tirelessly to address this crisis.
After this short break, she’ll talk about why and how she got organized in her community and together began to use commercial 3D printers to make PPE for hundreds of frontline workers.