Docs To Georgia Senators: 'Shame On You' For Not Passing COVID-19 Relief

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Across the U.S., the surge has swamped hospitals with patients and left nurses and other health care workers shorthanded and burned out.

Credit: (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

Local physicians say Georgia's hospitals are running out of space and health care staff are running out of protective gear, all while coronavirus cases are surging higher.

Georgia recorded 5,023 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, breaking previous single-day records, according to the state health department. Officials reported 43 new deaths Friday, which brings the state's total number of deaths to 8,922.

Dr. Eduardo Montaña, a pediatric cardiology specialist in Marietta, joined Dr. Kate Miele, an Atlanta OB-GYN, and Dr. Adam Nowlan, a radiation oncology specialist in Atlanta, to call on Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler to pass COVID-19 relief legislation before the CARES Act benefits expire later this month.

The doctors are members of the Committee to Protect Medicare and spoke to reporters Friday.

"We're calling on Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler to immediately pass a COVID-19 relief package on Tuesday," Nowlan said. "A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced such a relief package, but Sens. Perdue and Loeffler weren't part of it. And, for months, the senators have refused to act on a relief package passed by the House of Representatives, which includes support for struggling Georgians and resources for health care workers like myself and those who work alongside me in the hospital that can help save lives."

Miele described health care workers as stretched to the breaking point in trying to care for patients without enough protective gear.

"Every single N95 mask that a health care worker has to reuse through an entire shift because stocks are low only puts us and the people we care for at risk," she said. "By refusing to pass COVID-19 relief, Sens. Perdue and Loeffler are turning their backs on every Georgian, including every health care worker in our state."

Montaña called the senators' inaction a travesty, and said they need to pass the revised $908 billion Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act or Heroes Act.

"We are in for a terrible winter; we all know that," he said. "The surge in COVID-19 cases will strain our resources even further and push health care workers who are already working around-the-clock over the edge. We have a real crisis on our hands."

Specifically, Montaña called out the Republican leaders as having been born into or married into wealth, and accused them of taking advantage of pandemic-related stock trades.

Perdue and Loeffler say their portfolios are managed by third parties and note they have been cleared of any wrongdoing by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Senate Ethics Committee. 

"A message to Ms. Loeffler: You need to let Georgia take care of Georgians ... I think that we need to help our community and not ourselves," he said. "Put self-interest aside in politics for once and shame on you."

It is unclear where Loeffler and Perdue stand on the latest proposals. They have focused their campaigns on arguing that Democrats are to blame for Congress going months without approving further aid and that challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock would let House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer control policy.

Loeffler called for additional funding for PPP loans in a Tuesday statement and said last week that passing a new round of relief was among her priorities.