not a superhero, but you feel pretty close to one, to me. >> thank you so much. >> brangham: maria lobifaro, thank you very, very much for your time and thank you for all the work that you're doing. >> oh, thank you so much. and i hope you stay safe and you and your family as well. >> brangham: you, too. >> thank you. >> woodruff: and now a look at what some hospitals hope could be a stop-gap solution t shortage of a critical piece of protection for those heroes on the frontlines: n-95 masks. john yang haour report. >> yang: for health care professionals on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic, masks like this, called an n-95, are essential equipment. >> the overall situation i rrifying. this is the closest thing i've done to going to war. >> yang: sidney longwell is an emergency room physician at tulane medical center in new orleans. >> the patients that we ar seeing are a threat to us. if you're gonna go into somewhere where your someone's coughing or you're putting a tube down someone's throat with, yeu need a shield for your you need goggles and an n-95 as a basic minimum. y yang

to quote to you what a nurse at a new york hospital told us on night.wshour last her name is maria lobifaroe's an i.c.u. nurse. she said, "i've worked on a weekend where we were reusing the same gown from nue e to nurse, me protective gown." she said, "when my shift finished, i had to pass that gown on to the next nurse." she talked about seeing pictures of nurses in other countries overseasho were protected, protected by something that looked like a dacesuit. whatyou say to individuals like miss lobifaro who want to know why the federal government hasn't done something to order that this kind of gear, masks and testing be done? >> well, what i would say to marie and to every one of our courageous healthcare rkers, especially in places like new york city, first and foremost, is tha thank you for at you've done to provide the level of care, even during this crisis, that any american family would, would hope for theiloved ones. they've truly done a remarkable job. but, but i can, i can assure her, whether it whether it be gowns, wheer it be face masks or, or protective equipment, that we, we