'Forget the politics': President Trump faces backlash for stolen masks comments

President Donald Trump is facing backlash among health care workers for the comments he made over the weekend suggesting that people may be stealing masks from hospitals.

Trump made the comments Sunday during his coronavirus briefing while referring to one unnamed New York hospital that went from requiring 10,000 masks to 300,000.
"Where are the masks going? Are they going out the back door?" Trump said. "We have that in a lot of different places and somebody should look in to it."

During his briefing Monday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said, "Forget the politics. We have a national crisis, we are at war. There is no politics, there is no red and blue, it's red, white and blue so let's get over and lead by example."

The remarks sparked a response from the president of the Greater New York Hospital Association who wrote on Twitter, 'New York's health care workers deserve better than their president suggesting that PPE is 'going out the back door' of New York hospitals.' -Kenneth E. Raske."

Most Long Island hospitals would not comment on Trump's remarks. Northwell Health issued a statement saying, "We have long-established supply controls in place, this is not an issue for us at this time."

Dr. Susan Donelan, the medical director of health care epidemiology at Stony Brook Medicine, also stated the hospital has strict security measures in place.

The White House stated Trump's remarks were based on a news conference held by Cuomo in early March where he spoke about thefts of medical equipment.

State officials across the country and in New York are reporting a shortage of personal protective equipment such as masks for medical workers as they deal with the snowballing coronavirus pandemic.
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