The best way to thank SLO County doctors and nurses? Get them PPE!

It’s a haunting photograph ... nurses standing vigil outside, 6 feet apart, holding signs and candles, all essentially pleading for basic personal protective equipment — including masks that cost around $1 each prior the coronavirus pandemic.

They shouldn’t have to be doing this.

In their off-duty hours, nurses (all medical workers, for that matter) should be home, getting some much-needed rest before they go back to the front lines.

That’s not an overstatement. This is a world-wide war, and medical workers are among the hardest hit

We’re seeing that locally: On Thursday, county Public Health Officer Penny Borenstein announced that 15 medical workers are among the 89 known case of coronavirus. (A number that will no doubt have changed by the time you read this.)

The people who are working so hard to keep us well are getting sick themselves — and for want of the proper masks?

That’s criminal ... and it’s happening all over.

There’s also been a disconnect between what medical workers on the front lines are saying, and what the bosses are saying. In some cases, employees have even been fired for speaking out.

Here in San Luis Obispo County, nurses who gathered in front of the County Government Center on Thursday night said they’re having to reuse personal protective gear.

“Right now I think we are doing a great job, but we are reduced already to reusing all of our PPEs,” one nurse told The Tribune. “And not just me reusing my PPE that I used today. It goes into a pool and is shared, and is used again.”

Yet Megan Maloney, director of marketing and communications for Dignity Health in San Luis Obispo County, told The Tribune there are enough supplies for all of their facilities, which include French Hosptial Medical Center and Arroyo Grande Community Hospital.

“We continuously assess the volume of supplies at our facility,” she wrote. “We have multiple contingency plans to ensure our facility has the PPE necessary. Our supply chain is in contact with various suppliers to ensure we can replenish or move supplies as needed to any of our Dignity Health facilities... We also work closely with federal, state and local public health departments to ensure external resources are available if ever needed.”

Tenet Health, which owns Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center and Twin Cities Community Hospital in Templeton, offered this statement: “We can safely and appropriately care for our patients with the necessary supplies and equipment.”

County Public Health has been saying much the same: “We have been getting additional PPE in on a regular basis to the county,” Borenstein said. “We are making supplies available to the hospitals. If they don’t ask us for supplies, we are not offering it.”

She reiterated that at Friday’s press briefing.

“There are no outstanding requests (from hospitals),” she said.

If there is not a shortage, great.

If there is, please let us know, so we’ll at least have a complete picture of what’s happening as we confront this crisis.

From a selfish standpoint, we can’t afford to shortchange doctors, nurses and other medial care providers. They’re the ones who will be taking care of us, should we catch the virus.

And from a humanitarian standpoints, it’s like sending soldiers to war without helmets or body armor.

Medical workers need adequate gear. It’s a matter of life and death.

It’s not OK for doctors and nurses to wear masks over and over again.

And those DIY fabric masks being produced by so many well-meaning individuals who want to help? They are protective in some cases, but not for doctors and nurses dealing with coronavirus patients day in an day out.

Medical workers need N95 masks — a term we’re hearing a lot these days.

Exactly what does it mean?

The “N” means not resistant to oil, and the “95” means it can filter out at least 95% of all particles in the air, including very, very small ones.

A single-layer bandana or handkerchief, on the other hand, only filters out around 10% of particles.

So no, different types of face coverings really aren’t interchangeable. Here’s how a science writer with Forbes explained it: “A shortage of N95 masks isn’t like a shortage of throw pillows.”

Much already has been written about how the United States got into this predicament of not having nearly enough equipment — not just masks, but also ventilators and hand sanitizer and hospital gowns, etc.

A lot more will be said.

That’s as it should be; we must have a thorough investigation, because this cannot happen again.

But for now, the nation must concentrate on the task at hand: cranking out N95 masks and ventilators and sanitizing wipes and hospital gowns and all the other necessary equipment as fast as possible.

As for those of us who feel sidelined right now — we don’t have the means to manufacture masks or hand sanitizer or ventilators — we can still do our part to lighten the burden on SLO County’s medical workers.

We can stay as healthy as possible, so we don’t wind up in the emergency room or the hospital, adding to their case load.

The best way to do that?

It’s simple: By staying home.