Medical staff at hospitals across the country are working tirelessly in unprecedented working environments with a lack of supplies like necessary protective gear and patient equipment as cases of the coronavirus spike.

Doctors and nurses have spoken out about the working conditions and limited resources, putting the nation on notice of the dire situation. Now, some doctors and nurses are facing backlash for being too vocal, Bloomberg reports.

Media gag orders have reportedly been put in place at hospitals in states like New York and Illinois. A Charlotte radiologist, Nisha Mehta, told Bloomberg that she's heard daily emails were being sent to doctors relaying the alleged gag orders.

Ming Lin, a doctor in the state of Washington, told Bloomberg that he was fired after speaking with a local newspaper about the lack of medical supplies at his hospital.

“Nurses and other health care workers are being muzzled in an attempt by hospitals to preserve their image,” said Ruth Schubert, a spokesperson for the Washington State Nurses Association. “No health care worker should face being disciplined or fired for speaking the truth.”

Lauri Mazurkiewicz, a nurse in Chicago, said she was fired from Northwestern Memorial Hospital in a comparable incident.

The Chicago Tribune reports she warned her co-workers about the dangers of wearing masks that were "less safe and less effective" than the standard N-95 masks that are typically used within hospitals.

Mazurkiewicz is now suing her former employer for wrongful termination.

Lin's and Mazurkiewicz's terminations come on the heels of medical staff claiming hospital administrators are reprimanding them for speaking out in an attempt to control the narrative of working conditions and patient safety.

According to The Hill, hospital administrators claim doctors and nurses are putting patients' privacy at risk, however, Lin said speaking out against unsafe practices is part of a doctor's credo.

"Our oath is to do no harm,” Lin told Bloomberg. “I spoke out for patient safety and as a result I got terminated.”

Despite reports of shortages, President Donald Trump insinuated that masks were being taken "out the back door" of hospitals and possibly being sold on the black market.

"Where are the masks going? Are they going out the back door? How do you go from 10,000 to 300,000 — and we have that in a lot of different places," Trump said.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has requested that the state receive ventilators and urged other medical staff in the U.S. to consider flying in and helping patients amid concerns for the lack of personnel and supplies.

Gov. Cuomo has anticipated the state will need at least 30,000 ventilators as prices for the equipment increase due to competition among the states.

"We're in a situation where you have 50 states all competing for supplies. The federal government is also competing for supplies. Private hospitals are also competing for supplies. So we've created a situation where you literally have hundreds of entities looking to buy the same exact materials," he said.

As of Monday, Cuomo said New York had 66,497 people who tested positive for the virus and 1,218 related deaths.

Doctors

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