Medical professionals searching for N95 masks could soon be receiving shipments from “the happiest place on Earth.”
The Walt Disney Company announced on Wednesday that its parks division is donating more than 100,000 N95 masks to hospitals in New York, California, and Florida. New York has the largest coronavirus outbreak in the country; California and Florida are home to the Disneyland and Disneyworld theme parks.
Disney has also donated 150,000 rain ponchos to MedShare, a nonprofit organization that will distribute the ponchos to be used as personal protective equipment.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is unlike anything we’ve seen before,” said Charles Redding, the CEO and president of MedShare. “We have to find ways to pool our resources and work together to help the healthcare workers who are doing their very best to treat patients and contain COVID-19.”
N95 masks have been routinely named as one of the most needed items of personal protective equipment for doctors and nurses. In the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak, President Trump and Congress worked to strip regulations on the masks to allow industrial N95 masks to be used in hospitals. Vice President Mike Pence urged industries to consider donating their excess masks.
Disney closed many of its theme parks worldwide as the virus swept across the globe. When Disneyland and Disneyworld closed in the United States in March, the parks donated excess food from the facilities vendors to food banks in both Florida and California.
The parks, which were closed for the first time since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, have shuttered indefinitely as much of the country has hunkered down to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
