Jim Berklan

Although the pleas have been sincere, long-term care providers have not gotten all the federal help they have desired for obtaining personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Not until an all-out PR blitz by the top associations took root did the sector seem to get much traction. And even if the pipeline is filling up again with ramped-up production, the needs will continue.

So here’s the game plan the next time PPE shortages occur: Do like some enterprising German doctors did.

The physicians, inspired by a like-minded French doc before them, found a most effective way to appeal for more safety garments and equipment. Their group is called Blanke Bedenken, which translates to “naked concerns.”

They started posting photos of themselves nude, saying this is how they felt without enough PPE to protect them. “I learned to sew wounds. Why do I have to be able to sew masks now?” reads one physician’s sign. “Is that enough?” says another sign in front of a doctor wearing nothing but a blood pressure cuff.

More than two dozen photos of physicians looking at the camera populate the website. (See everything — well, almost everything — at blankebedenken.org ). All are tastefully shot, with the strategic medical text or stethoscope placed here, helpful rolls of toilet paper there, keeping things suitable for workplace viewing. Only an occasional buttock is revealed during a faux examination.

Has the campaign been successful? There’s evidence it has, but it’s hard to know for sure. An email to the group in their native language from this writer was answered with an automated apology.

It turns out the doctors group was besieged with so much attention and so many requests for information, it overwhelmed the system. They  simply didn’t have enough time or hands to answer everyone. 

Germany has about one-fourth the population of the United States, so just think how much media attention a similar campaign could garner here. What if docs, nurses and even administrators and lobbyists started distributing shots of themselves trying to conduct business au naturel to get their point across? 

Or better yet, have the White House coronavirus task force conduct a briefing in the buff. Then let’s see how quickly we get action where unprotected exposure means real danger — on the front lines, where the nation’s frail elders and their valiant caregivers toil each day.