COVID-19 PPE shortage: The real crisis is the blame-shifting culture in medicine

Recently, there have been considerable debates on whether certain medical procedures, such as labour and delivery, are aerosol generating and thus warrant N95 mask protection.<1> I heard of colleagues mocking rather than supporting these protective measures, accusing others of wasting our limited resources, like the “shame, blame and humiliation” described in this CMAJ article.<2> The public have also been blamed for inappropriately wearing masks, thereby increasing infection risk through self-contamination and depleting masks available for healthcare workers.<3><4> At one point, my laboratory colleagues were even prohibited to wear any masks because they are classified as "non-clinical" workers, the lowest on the priority list. That was somewhat shocking as laboratorians work closely with clinical specimens and make up one of the major groups tested positive for COVID-19.<5>

These blame-shifting behaviors go against the “all-in-this-together” motto in this pandemic, and might not have happened if we had sufficient PPE. As an analogy, I wonder whether we would mock people with poor hand-washing skills and thus ban them from washing their hands, if we also had water and sanitizer shortage? Would we debate whether vaccinations reduce the virus spread, and mock the parents who want to be vigilant? Similar to dealing with anti-vaxxers, I do not encourage starting any verbal fights with the disbelievers; rather, we should focus on helping the hesitant groups who require more information. We should keep in mind that people are having PPE not only to protect themselves, but also reducing their risk of being asymptomatic carriers. It is disheartening to see this lack of support for people who are doing their part to flatten the pandemic curve.