Apple will make millions of face shields for hospitals

A doctor at Kaiser in Santa Clara helped design the equipment

Apple will make millions of face shields and distribute them to hospitals scrambling to find protective gear for doctors and nurses amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In a tweeted video, CEO Tim Cook said the tech giant would make a million shields, which provide an extra barrier between health care workers and the droplets that spread the deadly disease, per week and ship them to hospitals around the U.S. and potentially beyond.

At 100 to a box, the shields can be packed flat and assembled in just a few minutes. The first shipment has already been delivered to Kaiser Permanente in Santa Clara, where a pediatrician created a prototype of the shield a few weeks ago and approached Apple about stepping in to help.

“They are right next door to us at Kaiser Santa Clara and we take care of them,” said the pediatrician, Kerstin Rosen, who has a background in engineering. “They are in fact our neighbors.”

Cook agreed. “We’ve launched a company-wide effort,” he said. “Our focus is on unique ways Apple can help.”

The shields, said Smita Rouillard, associate executive director of The Permanente Medical Group for Kaiser Permanente Northern California, help preserve valuable personal protective equipment “for a longer period of time.

The Cupertino-based company has also secured 20 million N95 masks for health care workers on the front lines.

Apple isn’t alone in building face shields. Maker Nexus, a Sunnyvale nonprofit, has rallied hundreds of volunteers to produce around 1,000 shields a day for the Santa Clara Valley Medical system and others. Rosen had also reached out to the nonprofit early on, but few can match the tech giant’s speed or reach.

Other Silicon Valley companies have also stepped forward to ease the blow of the pandemic, from Bloom Energy refurbishing broken ventilators to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, donating money to cover childcare and other expenses for health care workers.

Even as he sends ventilators out of the state to be used in especially hard-hit areas like New York, Gov. Gavin Newsom has talked about the pressing need for hundreds of millions of gloves, gowns and masks for doctors, nurses and other workers in California.

Rouillard said that without knowing exactly when a possible surge in patients will occur, it’s difficult to determine exactly how much equipment her doctors and nurses will need. But, she acknowledged, with FEMA taking some of the supplies Kaiser anticipated to reroute them to badly hit areas, having Apple and other neighbors nearby to step in is even more important.

“It really renews your energy,” Rouillard said, “and your spirit.

“For Apple,” Cook said, “this is a labor of love and gratitude.”