Companies That Are Helping Americans Fight COVID-19

3M is one of the companies that manufactures the N95 respirator masks that can better protect health care workers from the coronavirus. The masks are in short supply at hospitals nationwide and around the globe, and 3M doubled its global output of the respirators during the pandemic. Working with the Trump Administration, the company also announced it will import 166.5 million masks over the next three months, largely from its manufacturing plant in China so it could continue to export U.S.-made masks to Canada and Latin America.

Similar to Amazon, Alibaba is a Chinese e-commerce, entertainment, and cloud computing company. Through its charitable foundation, the company is donating 500,000 test kits and a million face masks to the United States.

American Family Insurance is sending its customers $50 per vehicle insured under one of the company’s policies. As more than 300 million Americans are being urged or ordered to stay at home by state and local lawmakers, fewer people are on the roads, meaning fewer accidents and lower costs for insurance companies. American Family Insurance anticipates returning around $200 million to its customers at a time when widespread layoffs mean many Americans are struggling financially.

Tech giant Apple has sourced, and procured, 20 million masks during the crisis. At least 10 million of them have been donated to health care workers across the United States, according to a statement from CEO Tim Cook. Multiple state governors thanked Cook, including New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Apple sent 1.9 million of the masks to New York, which is widely considered to be the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States. The company is also designing medical face masks.

Bacardi’s core business is alcoholic beverages, but in the midst of a pandemic, it is using its resources to produce badly needed hand sanitizer. As of late March, the company had committed to supplying enough alcohol to produce over a quarter million gallons of hand sanitizer. Much of it will be donated to local organizations and emergency workers.

Bank of America, along with several other consumer banks, is taking measures to accommodate its customers who may be struggling financially as unemployment rates spike across the country. The bank is refunding overdraft fees, deferring mortgage payments and issuing refunds for late fees, and suspending foreclosures, evictions, and repossessions. With about $1.8 trillion in assets, Bank of America is one of the largest banks in the United States.

Beyond Meat, a plant-based food company, has pledged to donate and distribute over 1 million of the company’s vegetarian Beyond Meat burgers to places like hospitals and food banks. The company’s pledge comes at a time when many Americans struggle to afford or access healthy meals.

Casetify makes cases and accessories for phones, smartwatches, AirPods, and other tech products. The company is selling a UV sanitizer for phones and donating 100% of the proceeds to a coronavirus relief organization. Though there is no way to test its effectiveness on COVID-19, Casetify claims the sanitizer kills 99.9% of germs.

Cisco Systems is one of the largest companies in America. The tech company pledged $225 million in aid — $8 million in cash and $210 million worth of products — to organizations like the U.N. and WHO that are aiming to “prevent, detect, and manage the spread” of the virus.

Costco recently began limiting how many people could be in its stores at one time. To reward essential workers who are putting themselves at risk during the crisis, the company announced in early April that it would give first responders and health care workers first admittance into its warehouse stores. Paramedics, firefighters, and health care workers with proof of their position are able to cut the line.

Apparel manufacturer Fanatics makes official jerseys for major sports leagues, including Major League Baseball, among other gear. With the season pushed back, however, the company uses its materials and manufacturing facility to create single-use masks and gowns for health care professionals. Fanatics is hoping to make close to a million masks and gowns, which will be distributed for free to hospitals in Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey.

President Donald Trump tweeted on March 22 that automakers Ford, GM, and Tesla were “being given the go ahead to make ventilators” and other medical devices to help with the pandemic. Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford said the company was already doing that. Ford said it would work with 3M to put together hundreds of thousands of face shields, as well as respirators, and with General Electric to help assemble ventilators. As physical distancing guidelines went into place and the demand for cars cratered, Ford halted auto manufacturing in some plants on March 20, and the closures could extend into May.

Google is using its position as America’s most popular search engine to help keep communities informed and help smaller businesses survive the economic crunch caused by the virus. The tech giant pledged $800 million worth of aid, though it should be noted much of this is in the form of ad space the company could otherwise be profiting from, not direct donations.

Google also offered the World Health Organization and government agencies a quarter of a billion dollars worth of ad space that would inform the public about the coronavirus and how to limit its spread. It is also offering $340 million in ad credits to select small and medium businesses, though only companies that “have been active advertisers since the beginning of 2019” are eligible. It is also providing $200 million for non-governmental organizations and financial institutions to help small businesses secure loans, but this is through an investment fund.

As Americans are encouraged or ordered to stay in their homes, HBO is helping them fill up the time by offering some of its most popular movies, TV series, and documentaries for free. Anyone, even those without a subscription, can stream classics like “The Sopranos,” “The Wire,” “Veep,” and more through on demand services healthcare or the HBO GO and HBO NOW apps. The offer only lasts through the end of April, and HBO may be hoping that viewers will want to subscribe to continue watching after the trial is over.

New York City is the hardest-hit place in America by the coronavirus, yet many health care workers in the city struggled to get to their jobs as public transit became unsafe. Hertz decided to use its idle rental cars to fill that gap, offering these workers free car rentals throughout April in the city. Hertz is also lending Mount Sinai Health System free cargo van rentals to transport ventilators and other supplies.

Johnson & Johnson will donate 10,000 sets of goggles to health care workers in its home state of New Jersey. It has also pledged $50 million to various organizations aiding frontline health care workers who are researching the virus and treating patients.

J&J and Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority committed to spend over $1 billion to try to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.

Many grocery stores and distributors workers have demanded increased compensation as they continue to work as essential employees. Kroger has agreed to a $2 per hour hazard pay raise. The grocery chain has also begun equipping stores with partitions at registers and shortening store hours to give employees time to restock and rest. The company, which saw same-store sales jump 30% compared to February, also donated $3 million to food banks.

Loom’s software allows users to make videos by capturing their screen, webcam, and microphone and instantly share the recording. In response to the outbreak, the company made its Loom Pro service free to all educators forever, not just during the pandemic, giving them better tools to teach students from afar. The company also removed recording limits on its free plan, extended free trials, and halved the price of Loom Pro for non-educators.

With sports leagues in America having halted play because of the pandemic, the New England Patriots put their idle plane to good use. Team owner Robert Kraft and his son and team president Jonathan Kraft worked with Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker to purchase 1.2 million masks in early April, sending the team’s plane to pick them up from China. Kraft and his family paid $2 million to buy these masks as well as another shipment of half a million more masks, 300,000 of which were marked for New York City.

Nike converted portions of its factories to make face shields and air-purifying respirators. The sporting goods and apparel giant worked with Oregon Health & Science University to repurpose padding, cords, and shoe soles into personal protective equipment that was donated to the university beginning in April.

Food and beverage company PepsiCo put together a $45 million support package to help distribute goods to communities facing especially difficult challenges with the pandemic. The company said the money will be used to provide meals, protective equipment, and other services. The company will also match employee donations to nonprofits aiding in coronavirus relief throughout April, up to $2 million.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced his company would ship its spare FDA-approved ventilators to hospitals for free. There was some confusion about these devices, however. While hospitals are short on invasive ventilators that help people breathe and push oxygen into the lungs via a tube, Tesla has sent non-invasive ventilators known as BPAP machines. While not ideal for treating COVID-19 patients, these devices could still be useful. The automaker is now developing a prototype ventilator using car parts.

As college campuses across the country closed down, many students were left with nowhere to put their belongings. Moving company U-Haul stepped in to help, offering students displaced by the coronavirus a month of free storage at company-owned storage facilities.

As ride sharing has been all but phased out by physical distancing limitations, Uber is finding ways for its drivers to help during the pandemic. The company said it will provide 10 million free rides and food deliveries to “health care workers, seniors and people in need” across the world. It will also use its Uber Eats delivery service to provide 300,000 free meals to first responders and health care workers. The company has also waived delivery fees for independent restaurants to help keep those businesses afloat.

Wells Fargo was in need of a public relations boost after its role in the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008 and its fake account scandal from 2016. It is possible that the desire to improve its image was a factor in choosing to offer one of the more expansive COVID-19 relief packages among banks — pausing all evictions and auto repossessions and offering some fee waivers and deferred payments to customers on an individual basis. The bank’s foundation will also donate $175 million to help public health, housing, and food efforts.