States asked to hand over lethal injection drugs in prisons to fight coronavirus

A group of doctors and health experts want states who perform lethal injections to hand over their drugs because they could be used to treat coronavirus patients.

Some drugs that are needed during the coronavirus pandemic are ones used in lethal injection executions at state prisons, the experts wrote in a letter to state correctional facility directors.

“These medicines were never made or developed to cause death —to the contrary, many were formulated to connect patients to life-saving ventilators and lessen the discomfort of intubation,” the group of seven doctors and professors said.

There are 25 states who perform lethal injections, and three more — California, Oregon and — have governor-imposed moratoriums on the executions, according to DeathPenaltyInfo.Org.

Lethal injections involves sedatives and paralytics, which the group says are in “dangerously short supply across our nation.” The U.S. Food & Drug Administration shows a national shortage of two of the drugs, midazolam and fentanyl. Several other drugs are mentioned in the letter as ones used to treat executions that are needed for ventilation.

The drugs, which the authors of the letter say states are stockpiling, could save hundreds of patients, they wrote in the letter.

“Though this may be a small fraction of the total anticipated deaths, it is a central ethical directive that medicine values every life,” the letter stated. “Those who might be saved could include a colleague, a loved one or even you.”

There have been 1,337 lethal injections executions since 1976 and around 2,500 inmates await execution, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Florida, Nevada and Tennessee are among the states stockpiling execution drugs, the letter states. Florida has enough rocuronium bromide to intubate 100 COVID-19 patients, according to the health experts. Other states have not disclosed how much they have in their stockpiles.

“Our health system has never more desperately needed the medicines you currently hold for use in executions,” the experts wrote. “Every last vial of medicine could mean the difference between life and death.”

Wyoming is the only state who has responded to the letter as of April 10, claiming they do not have any of the drugs needed, one of the authors of the letter, Dr. Joel Zivot, told Newsweek.