A nurse in New York City who had been infected with the coronavirus told CNN's Poppy Harlow on Friday that he and his colleagues are being sent to work in dangerous situations where they don't have sufficient protective equipment.
Thomas Riley, a registered nurse at New York's Jacobi Medical Center, told Harlow that the stories that have been reported about equipment shortages are very real and that medical workers' lives are being endangered because of it.
"It feels like we're in a war, and like we're soldiers in a war, being sent out without camouflage, without Kevlar," he said. "We have no defenses against this, and they're giving us very little."
Riley said he had no idea who was to blame for the shortages, though he said he believed his own hospital administrators were doing everything in their power to secure more equipment.
He also said that he had been out of work for the past two weeks, although he's now recovering to the point where he'll be able to go back to the hospital with less anxiety than he had before.
Watch the video below.
'We have no defenses!' COVID-19-infected nurse paints dire picture of equipment shortage from Brad Reed on Vimeo.
