Both big and small, healthcare related and not, companies are stepping up to do their part during the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether it be donating masks from their stockpiles, teaming up with hospitals to share data or offering to make equipment that they normally wouldn’t, it’s a true collaboration in a time when it is needed the most.
Major League Baseball
March 26th, 2020 was supposed to kick off the 119th Major League Baseball season, instead baseball ‘jerseys’ are going to the front lines of our nation’s healthcare workers. To help alleviate the shortage of personal protective equipment, Fanatics, the company that manufactures the official uniforms for Major League Baseball, is using their materials and machinery to develop hospital gowns and masks. MLB and Fanatics will donate everything they produce to help decrease the spread of COVID-19.
“I’m proud Major League Baseball can partner with Fanatics to help support the brave healthcare workers and emergency personnel who are on the front lines of helping patients with COVID-19. They are truly heroes.” Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement.
Dyson
MLB estimates that they will be able to produce 1 million each of both masks and gowns. The shift to medical supply production will last as long as the need exists. The delivery of the equipment has begun throughout the tri- state area of New York, which has become the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States.
Another company that is completely transforming their normal business production is Dyson. Known for their vacuums, Dyson will now shift their resources to produce much needed ventilators. Founder James Dyson is leading the initiative. Dyson said the company designed and built an entirely new ventilator, called the CoVent. The CoVent is a bed-mounted and portable ventilator, with the option to run on battery power should the need occur.
“This new device can be manufactured quickly, efficiently and at volume,” Dyson added, saying that the new ventilator has been designed to “address the specific needs” of coronavirus patients.
Dyson reports that 5,000 CoVent ventilators will be ready by early April. Dyson plans on producing a total of 15,000 units in a short period of time. It’s unclear whether Dyson will be able to ramp up production further, but at this point, anything and everything will be extremely helpful.
Other notable companies that are contributing services to the global pandemic:
- Google, and Microsoft announced that they would join the Trump administration’s new COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium.
- Amazon, Microsoft, and Salesforce said they would join the new data-pooling COVID-19 Healthcare Coalition.
- Louis Vuitton and L’Oréal will use their cosmetics and perfume manufacturing facilities to make free alcohol-based sanitizer amid the global shortage.
- Apple and Facebook will be donating millions of masks to health workers in the US and Europe.
- Johnson & Johnson has donated masks, isopropyl alcohol, and contact lenses to hospitals and medical workers.
In unprecedented times call for extraordinary measures. Even without the President officially enacting the Defense Production Act of 1950, which would require businesses to fulfill orders deemed necessary for National defense and emergencies, companies are coming through in unimaginable ways on their own. These extraordinary acts of development will save countless lives and ultimately help get our country back to normal.
Sources
- https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/03/20/7-big-businesses-chipping-in-to-help-fight-the-cor.aspx
- https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-fanatics-provide-masks-in-coronavirus-fight
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddawkins/2020/03/26/billionaire-james-dyson-confirms-initial-order-of-10000-ventilators-will-made-in-britain-at-raf-hullavington/#1af79e711660