Mikey Campbell
Clarifying earlier statements made over the weekend, Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday said Apple is donating 9 million N95 face masks to healthcare facilities in the U.S. as medical workers fight to stave off COVID-19.
Pence, who serves as chair of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, announced Apple's contribution during a press briefing.
"And I spoke today, and the president spoke last week, with Tim Cook of Apple," Pence said. "And at this moment in time Apple went to their store houses and is donating 9 million N95 masks to healthcare facilities all across the country and to the national stockpile."
Whether Apple plans to make similarly large donations to other stricken countries is at this point unknown. Cook on Saturday said the company is giving "millions" of masks to health professionals in the U.S. and Europe.
Healthcare workers in the U.S. and abroad are in dire need of the essential protective gear, stock of which has quickly depleted as COVID-19 continues its steady march across the globe. Some have been told to fashion makeshift solutions such as bandanas in lieu of proper safety equipment.
Business Insider reported on Pence's statements earlier today.
The figures detailed on Tuesday stand in contrast to those discussed just three days ago during a similar White House briefing. At the time, Pence said Apple pledged 2 million masks, to be provided to those working in the hardest hit areas of the country.
Cook confirmed the donation in a tweet on Saturday.
"Our teams at Apple have been working to help source supplies for healthcare providers fighting COVID-19," Cook's tweet reads. "We're donating millions of masks for health professionals in the US and Europe. To every one of the heroes on the front lines, we thank you."
Cook first brought word of Apple's efforts to combat the virus in January when he announced unspecified donations to "groups on the ground." Earlier in March, Apple said its monetary commitments surpassed $15 million as the company began to match employee donations on a two-to-one basis.
Last week, Cook pledged a "substantial donation" to Protezione Civile, the Italian Government's official emergency response department.
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18 Comments
Good for Apple. They have plenty of cash so they may as well use it for a worthwhile purpose. I'm not sure if it will help lessen the company image of Apple supposedly over-charging consumers for its products but it's definitely worth a shot. It would be nice if a good percentage of those masks came to New York City because it appears we're going to need them as I believe New York City has the highest number of infections in the U.S. which kinda sucks. I still don't quite understand how that happened. Maybe it's because of the high population density.
Where have these masks been for the last month? Why are they just being donated now? Why does Apple have 9m?
"Greedy Apple" back to their old tricks!
/s
Apple has 130,000 employees or so. It is rather mind boggling that they stockpiled (over) 9 millions masks for just this type of emergency. Makes you wonder what else they stashed away for a rainy day. Since we don't hear of every other major company donating equipment at this scale, one has to assume that Apple is an outlier in this respect. I'd love to know more about when went into the decisions to prepare this extensively. Is it a Cook thing? Was it started under Jobs? In any case, good job, unsung hero, whomever you are.