Nurses protest in front of White House, demand PPE funding be included in next aid package

The National Nurses United union staged a protest Tuesday outside the White House to demand that the next coronavirus stimulus package include funding for the mass production of personal protective equipment.

“NNU is calling on Congress to mandate the [Defense Production Act]’s use to produce the equipment and supplies health care workers need to care for COVIF-19 patients as well as to conduct mass testing that is required to control the spread of the virus,” the nurse's union said in a statement.

The nurses in front of the White House read aloud the names of 50 of their colleagues who have died of coronavirus, contracted while serving on the frontlines of the pandemic.

“We are here because our colleagues are dying," one nurse told NBC News. "I think that right now people think of us as heroes, but we’re feeling like martyrs.”

President Trump has recently implemented the Defense Production Act in a limited fashion to manufacture ventilators and other equipment needed to respond to the pandemic.

On Monday, the New York State Nurses Association filed a lawsuit against the New York Department of Health over what is being described as unsafe working conditions and failing to provide adequate PPE.