WATCH: Kamala Harris Call A COVID Frontline Nurse On Thanksgiving
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris shared a few warm words on Thanksgiving Day with someone who needed them the most.
Harris picked up the phone to thank Talisa Hardin, a registered nurse in Chicago, for her work during the coronavirus pandemic.
“I know it’s personal for you, and I know that it requires mental and emotional and physical and spiritual energy and power that you give to it, so thank you,” Harris can be heard telling Hardin in a video Bonnie Castillo, executive director of National Nurses Union (NNU), posted to Facebook.
The VP-elect shared the heartwarming moment on her Instagram as well.
“I wanted to see you to say Happy Thanksgiving!,” Harris said during their facetime call. “And just for everything you do every day, I’ve been reading about you and just all that you do in service of so many people.”
CNN reports that Harris reportedly spoke to Hardin about the Defense Production Act, which is a 1950 law that could speed up the process of giving more resources and supplies to medical staff on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Castillo.
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Hardin, who works at the University of Chicago Medical Center, previously testified to the House Oversight Committee in May as a member of the NNU and the medical center. In her testimony, she explained that management at her center consistently refused to provide nurses with proper PPE to avoid exposure and infection to the coronavirus.
"As a nurse, it was deeply disappointing to listen to hospital attorneys, people who have zero experience with medical or nursing care, refuse to listen to health care professionals in their hospital. Management was consistently condescending and patronizing to our nurses," Hardin said.
The RN says that lack of immediate resources is increasing the risk of medical staff getting infected with the virus and spreading it to their families.
"When I come home every day, I live in fear of contracting the virus," Hardin told Congress.