COVID and other : The disasters show that the US needs more emergency health care workers

From Katrina to COVID: The disasters that proved the US needed more emergency health care workers From Hurricane Katrina to Ebola, these disasters showed the U.S. knew it needed more emergency health workers. The government failed to hire them. YahooNews

Problems with the vital safety net of federal medical personnel have persisted for more than 15 years and across at least four presidents: Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden.

Calls to change the system began as early as Hurricane Katrina, which struck the Gulf Coast in 2005, and were renewed after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2017.

ALSO SEE: Two years into the pandemic and our health care workforce is still suffering

Before the pandemic, plans were put in place to increase the number of workers in the system to more than 16,000, including about 10,300 clinical professionals who could provide medical care.

Again and again, however, the effort fell short.

Here's how federal emergency medical workers have responded to major disasters in recent years and how the government sought to boost hiring.

More from this project: Struggling hospitals needed emergency staff as COVID swept the nation. Trump and Biden fell short.

Who are the medical workers?: In hurricanes, outbreaks and other disasters, the US calls on these medical workers for help