TV medical dramas donate masks to hospitals amid coronavirus pandemic

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Several TV medical dramas that have shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic are donating masks, gloves and gowns from their wardrobe departments to real health professionals facing shortages amid the crisis.

FOX’s “The Resident” Wednesday gave boxes of personal protective equipment to Atlanta’s Grady Memorial Hospital.

“Thank you for this incredibly generous donation of #PPE from your set, including gowns, masks, gloves, and all the things our healthcare workers need to provide safe care for our community during #COVID19," Dr. Karen Law, a rheumatologist at the hospital, wrote on Instagram.

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She wrote that on Tuesday she told the residents there that supplies are low but a “magical” shipment of masks was unlikely to arrive.

“And yet, a magical shipment of masks DID arrive, in the form of this very generous gesture. This kind of community support means so much to our #frontlineproviders who are making many sacrifices to staff our hospitals and care for our community,” she added.

ABC’s “The Good Doctor,” which films in Vancouver, plans to donate the cast’s personal protective equipment to the area’s hospitals, Entertainment Weekly reported.

The “Grey’s Anatomy” spinoff “Station 19” also donated their N95 respirator masks to the City of Ontario Fire Department.

Hospitals are facing shortages due to the influx of coronavirus cases and because much of the equipment is made in China.

China has ramped up the production of masks since facing a similar shortage as the virus spread through the country and overwhelmed its hospitals but still can't keep up with the demand.

Experts, including the U.S. surgeon general, have urged healthy people to not buy masks.

"Seriously people- STOP BUYING MASKS!" the surgeon general, Dr. Jerome M. Adams, wrote on Twitter earlier this month. "They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers can’t get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!"

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President Trump Wednesday announced he had invoked the Defense Production Act, which was first enacted during the Korean War, to ramp up domestic production of masks and PPE.