U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) helped lead a bipartisan group of 17 members of Congress from the Pacific Northwest in requesting that additional ventilators be sent to the region most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our hospitals across the region have grown more concerned that in a short time they will be overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients as intensive care unit capacity is reached,” Rep. McMorris Rodgers and her colleagues wrote in a March 20 letter sent to Vice President Mike Pence, who heads up the national response effort.
“We have seen reports that due to the limited number of ventilators and overwhelming number of patients, physicians in Italy have been forced to make the impossible decision of rationing which patients are more deserving of being saved,” they wrote.
Rep. McMorris Rodgers and the lawmakers noted that the Pacific Northwest has disproportionately fewer ventilators than the rest of the nation, and they commended recent action by U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper to provide 2,000 ventilators to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to support the ongoing response to COVID-19.
However, they wrote that the administration also should develop a national manufacturing goal for new ventilators.
“We urge the White House to convene every ventilator manufacturer with the purpose of developing a collective national manufacturing goal to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak,” Rep. McMorris Rodgers and her colleagues wrote. “The stories that have come out of Italy are heart-wrenching but we are hopeful that with strategic decision making we can avoid a similar outcome.”
The letter was also signed by U.S. Reps. Suzan DelBene (D-WA) and Dan Newhouse (R-WA), among others.
Cassie Sauer, president and CEO of the Washington State Hospital Association, thanked Rep. McMorris Rodgers and the other congressional members for requesting the needed supplies and equipment.
“Washington State does not have enough ventilators to care for the number of patients who may need them if the virus continues to spread at this rate,” she said. “All supplies are critically low, and our residents need this support to stay safe.”