Wednesday, the White House announced that fifty major American firms have answered the White House’s call to join the national war on the coronavirus.
“The private sector is responding to President Trump’s call to step up and help combat the coronavirus,” the White House said Tuesday.
Many of the companies are shifting their focus and even assembly lines to deliver needed supplies to the doctors, hospitals, and first responders against the COVID-19 global pandemic.
Most did so voluntarily and were not coerced by government or threatened with the Defense Production Act.
Major corporations including: Facebook; Anheuser-Busch; Ford; Fiat Chrysler; Toyota; GE Healthcare; 3M; Jockey; Hanes; Ralph; Lauren; GE Healthcare; General Motors; and My Pillow have all stepped up and are contributing to the COVID-19 war effort.
. “While by no means comprehensive, these are some notable examples of the private sector stepping up,” said an administration official.
The National Sheriffs’ Association have cited: Home Depot, Grainger, and Staples as well as a half-dozen national restaurant chains for their help.
Their pleas for help have been “enthusiastically welcomed” by some top corporations, said National Sheriffs’ Association Executive Director and CEO Jonathan Thompson. “What they are doing is more than impressive. It’s heartening,” he said.
My Pillow has dedicated 75 percent of its production to the effort making PPE.
President Trump has highlighted the role that our corporate partners are playing in the COVID-19 effort during his daily coronavirus task force press conferences.
“With our great president, vice president and this administration and all the great people in this country praying daily, we will get through this and get back to a place that’s stronger and safer than ever,” said My Pillow founder and CEO Mike Lindell.
“Joining us this afternoon are CEOs of the great American companies that are fulfilling their patriotic duty by producing or donating medical equipment to help meet our most urgent needs,” Pres. Trump said on Monday. “What they’re doing is incredible. And these are great companies.”
Ford, 3M and GE Healthcare are making ventilators in a joint effort.
Toyota is using their facilities to produce face shields and collaborating with medical device companies to speed up manufacturing of vital medical devices.
General Motors is manufacturing respiratory masks and working with Ventec Life Systems to mass produce ventilators.
Fiat Chrysler is manufacturing and donating more than 1 million protective face masks a month.
Honeywell has doubled their production of N95 masks and intends to increase its capacity 500 percent over the next 90 days.
3M doubled their global output of N95 respirator masks and plans to make 100 million a month.
SpaceX is making hand sanitizer and face shields for local hospitals.
Lockheed Martin donated use of their corporate aircraft and vehicle fleet for medical supply delivery,
Boeing will print 3D face shields for healthcare workers and offer its Dreamlifter aircraft to help coronavirus response efforts.
Anheuser-Busch is working to produce hand sanitizer.
Bayer, Novartis, and Teva Pharmaceuticals donated millions of doses of hydroxychloroquine, an experimental treatment for COVID-19 that has shown some early promise.
·Johnson & Johnson has partnered with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to commit more than $1 billion to co-fund vaccine research, development, and clinical testing.
Procter & Gamble is ramping up its production capacity for hand sanitizer, and is working to produce face masks.
Medtronic is increasing its production of ventilators.
Panera Bread is partnering with USDA to serve meals to children throughout Ohio.
Economic developer Dr. Nicole Jones said, “The private sector has the ability to move with incredible speed. Many companies already own the equipment that can produce various items and have tweaked processes to manufacture products our country needs. For example, clothing companies such as Ralph Lauren, Hanes, and Brooks Brothers are making gowns and masks. Ford and GE combined forces to produce ventilators. Alcoholic beverage companies repurposed what would be normally be discarded into hand sanitizers. All of these are examples of American workers’ willingness to step up at a critical time in United States and world history.”
(Original reporting by the Washington Examiner contributed to this report.)
