German doctors treating coronavirus patients are sharing nudes in huge numbers to protest the lack of facemasks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) available to them.
In an online campaign called Blanke Bedenken, or Bare Concerns, doctors and nurses are stripping down to their stethoscopes and… not much else.
“The nudity is a symbol of how vulnerable we are without protection,” GP Ruben Bernau told a German medical newspaper.
Another doctor said she was “trained to sew up wounds” before asking: “Why am I now having to sew my own face mask?”
The healthcare workers made clear that while they want to continue treating coronavirus patients, they don’t have the right equipment to protect themselves during the pandemic.
“We are your general practitioners. To treat you safely, we need protective equipment. If we run out of what little we have, this is what we look like,” the campaign stated on Twitter.
The protest started after a lone French doctor, Alain Coloumbié, uploaded a nude with the words “cannon fodder” written on his arm, but it wasn’t until the trend spread to Germany that it went viral.
Germany has witnessed almost 160,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases, although the number of new cases each day is declining.
A recent study by an association of health insurers in the country found the healthcare system was lacking in over 100 million facemasks, as well as around 60 million disposable gloves and single-use aprons.
By dabbling in workplace nudism, the doctors are protesting this crisis in the most German way possible.
