A number of German doctors have stripped naked in a series of photos to show how vulnerable they feel without adequate protective equipment while fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

The group calls its protest Blanke Bedenken, which translates as “naked concerns”. They stated that shortages of protective clothing and equipment are putting their lives at risk.

“We are your general practitioners. To treat you safely, we need protective equipment. If we run out of what little we have, we look like this,” one of the group’s tweets said next to a naked photo of a male physician.

On its site, the group, which was launched last Thursday and has since garnered growing attention online, has featured more photos of doctors posing in their medical practices, some wearing nothing but a stethoscope, hiding their private parts behind medical equipment, paperwork and toilet rolls.

In one of the photos a doctor holds up a sign that reads in German, “I learned to sew wounds. Why do I now need to know how to sew masks?”

German health workers, just like health workers in many other countries, have appealed for more personal protective equipment (PPE) since the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic.

On its website, Blanke Bedenken says its members were inspired by Alain Colombie, a family doctor in Pomérols, France, who posed naked in his practice to draw attention to insufficient protection for general practitioners.

In the photos, Colombie wore an armband with the words “cannon fodder” on it to highlight the problem.