Drug Shortages During COVID-19 Patient Surge

By Melissa Gerr

Published April 14, 2020 at 10:22 AM EDT

Maryland hospitals caring for a surge of patients with Covid-19 are not just scrounging for enough equipment, like ventilators--they’re also hunting for the essential drugs they need to attach patients to those breathing machines. Sedatives, painkillers, asthma drugs and many other medicines--all scarce. Dr. Yoram Unguru, a doctor who treats kids with cancer at Sinai Hospital, often struggles to find the medicines his young patients need. As chair of Sinai’s ethics committee, now he’s helping find workarounds for a range of sparse drugs for Covid-19 patients. For more reporting on this issue, visit this link.

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Melissa Gerr

Melissa Gerr is a Senior Producer for On the Record. She started in public media at Twin Cities Public Television in St. Paul, Minn., where she is from, and then worked as a field producer for Oregon Public Broadcasting in Portland. She made the jump to audio-lover in Baltimore as a digital media editor at Mid-Atlantic Media and Laureate Education, Inc. and as a field producer for "Out of the Blocks." Her beat is typically the off-beat with an emphasis on science, culture and things that make you say, 'Wait, what?'

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