Topline: Apple will donate 9 million N95 protective masks to combat the coronavirus, Vice President Mike Pence said on Tuesday, making Apple one of several California tech companies pitching in as hospitals across the country report a shortage of protective gear.



<ul><li>Pence thanked Apple for agreeing to donate 9 million N95 respirator masks to healthcare facilities across the country during a press briefing on Tuesday.</li><li>Pence’s remarks come after Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted over the weekend the company was “working to help source supplies for healthcare providers fighting COVID-19” and “donating millions of masks for health professionals in the US and Europe,” but did not offer more specifics.</li><li>N95 respirators are masks that form a protective seal around a wearer’s mouth, filtering&nbsp; out at least 95% of particles in the air, according to the Centers for Disease Control, which makes them necessary to protect healthcare workers from being exposed to the disease from patients.</li><li>Facebook has also said it is donating its stockpile of 720,000 masks purchased during the California wildfires last year, which degraded the air quality in the San Francisco Bay Area.</li><li>Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;asking if all of the donated masks were stockpiled because of the wildfires or if the company got them from somewhere else.</li></ul>



Chief critic: Teddy Schleifer, a reporter at Recode, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/3/23/21191147/medical-masks-coronavirus-shortage-silicon-valley-donations-salesforce-apple-facebook-tesla" target="_blank">wrote</a> that health systems shouldn’t rely on the generosity of big tech companies to make up for the failures of the federal government. 



“But there is a risk in relying on corporate philanthropy—rather than the government—in solving this problem. For starters, it depends on the voluntary generosity of these companies to deal with an unprecedented emergency, an altruism that could vanish at any time,” he&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/3/23/21191147/medical-masks-coronavirus-shortage-silicon-valley-donations-salesforce-apple-facebook-tesla" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wrote</a>.



Crucial quote: &#8220;And I spoke today, and the president spoke last week, with Tim Cook of Apple. 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,” Pence said.



Key background: Apple is one of several California tech companies to give away N95 masks. In addition to Facebook, Salesforce, Tesla and IBM have also announced mask donations.



News peg: Doctors and nurses are sounding the alarm that they don’t have enough masks to protect healthcare workers. Not only does inadequate protective gear put important frontline health workers at risk, public health experts say, any situation endangering medical personnel may only further depletes the U.S. health system which already doesn’t have enough capacity to handle a surge in cases. State officials in New York and Illinois have criticized President Donald Trump for not stepping in to force companies to manufacture masks or allocate masks from private companies to ensure that states don’t <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-cuomo-says-states-are-bidding-up-cost-of-supplies-2020-3" target="_blank">outbid</a> each other for the same supplies. 



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/">Rachel Sandler</a>, Forbes Staff, Breaking News

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Apple Is Donating 9 Million Masks To Combat The Coronavirus

Magda Wierzycka, one of South Africa’s richest women, had her lowest moment standing in an airport parking lot, unemployed, looking at the long walk to the cheapest rental car. Things had dramatically changed since she was one of the top three most senior employees in the company she worked for. She had quit, angry at an ethical breach and felt like she had to start her career from scratch.
Little did she know, she was months away from a solid position and eventually, the start of her own company, which would rocket her to the multi-millionaire’s club. However, in that drab parking lot, knowing her husband was unemployed as well, knowing she had bills to pay, children to feed, and trying to start her own business, it all felt overwhelming.
“I felt like I was in a constant state of panic attack,” says Wierzycka, “It was such an incredibly stressful time.”
Today, she is the Chief Executive Officer of Sygnia Group, an asset management company. She went from that day in the parking lot to one of South Africa&#8217;s richest women in a few years. It&#8217;s a tale of countering adversity to rise to the top.
South Africa has had a slew of businessmen tumbling from grace in the past year, some from oversight and others from severe ethical impropriety. For many C-suite executives, a public downfall is difficult to correct, and few can crawl out from the rubble and continue their careers.
However, “You’d be astounded how many billionaires were bankrupt in their past,” points out James van der Westhuizen, a South Africa-based industrial psychologist and the managing member at KnowHouse. “If you can learn from your failure, that’s a good sign of future success.”
Some of the businessmen included in that list are the truly resilient, like Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple (once fired from the company he created).
Resilience is the difference between those who succumb to and those who bounce back.
“Some people would have taken a deep breath and planned the next step after landing themselves in a situation like mine, but I just threw myself into activities,” says Wierzycka.
“My philosophy is that you must never stop fishing. You only need to catch the occasional whale, but you have to keep fishing to do that.”
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2018/02/21/lose-2-1-billion-one-day/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: How To Lose $2.1 Billion In One Day</a>
<h2>How to be resilient</h2>
How you handle failure says a lot about your internal resources: resilience. The New Yorker defines resilience as the answer to this question: when the worst hits, “Do you succumb or do you surmount?”
James van der Westhuizen, a South Africa-based industrial psychologist and the managing member at KnowHouse, says that he covers three factors in his executive coaching that apply to resilience. They are:
<ol>
<li>Mind body system: “Humans are an energy run system, and you need to replenish your internal resources by looking after your body,” says Van der Westhuizen, “I’m often astonished at the neglect I see in executives.” Look after your body and take time out to care for your mind too.</li>
<li>Social network: “Humans are social creatures,” says Van der Westhuizen. Make sure you have a social network you can draw on. A supportive home base and secure relationships make a huge impact at a time like this. “I couldn’t have done any of it without my husband,” says Wierzycka, “He was the voice of reason.”</li>
<li>Habits of thinking. This is a big one, and it can trip you up unnoticed. It’s easy to fall into negative thinking patterns that make you feel helpless. It’s important to keep perspective, avoid globalising one event to everything and to take one day at a time.</li>
</ol>

Tag: Steve Jobs

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Apple Is Donating 9 Million Masks To Combat The Coronavirus

When the mighty fall