Celebrities open their coffers to help COVID-19 relief efforts in US

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread around the world, hundreds of thousands of businesses are being shuttered, millions of jobs are vanishing, and over 119,000 lives have been lost to date.

Responding to the dire need of their community and neighbors, some US celebrities and billionaires are using their resources and high-profile public platforms to help fund relief efforts.

Each donor has a personal focus. Some are moved to buy protective equipment (PPEs) for healthcare professionals and first responders putting their lives on the line.

Amid a nationwide outcry from healthcare workers due to a shortage of PPE, pop star Pink pledged $500,000 to the City of Los Angeles Mayor's Emergency COVID-19 Crisis Fund and another 500,000 dollars to the Temple University Hospital Emergency Fund in Philadelphia, where confirmed infections case rose by 1,366 on Monday to 24,199 with 524 deaths.

Blockbuster country western singer Dolly Parton donated $1 million to Nashville's Vanderbilt Hospital; and pop icon, Elton John, formed a 1-million-dollar COVID-19 fund to protect people with HIV.

Meanwhile, China's Jack Ma, co-founder and former Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group, has donated a million masks and 500,000 test kits to the United States; Joe Tsai, Alibaba co-founder and owner of the Brooklyn Nets heeded New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's call and joined forces with the Chinese government to donate 1,000 ventilators to beleaguered hospitals in New York City.

Some are donating food and medical supplies, while others are funding economic relief efforts to help cushion the financial havoc that the corona-shutdowns has wrecked on ordinary workers who have been laid off by the millions.

"Whatever they do to help, their efforts are needed and very, very welcome," Executive VP of Los Angeles Economic Development Corp, Stephen Cheung, told Xinhua on Monday. His group is helping coordinate LA's assistance efforts during the outbreak.

Phil Knight, co-founder of Nike, and his executives and wife donated $10 million, while Sara Blakely, founder and CEO of Spanx Inc., is putting up $5 million for female entrepreneurs financially distressed by the massive COVID-19 recession.

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and the richest person in the world, has pledged $100 million to the Feeding America Food Bank charity organization.

"Even in ordinary times, food insecurity in American households is an important problem, and unfortunately Covid-19 is amplifying that stress significantly," said Bezos in a recent Instagram post.

Also giving to food banks and other relief efforts are music and film stars living in California, like Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Blake Lively, Justin Beiber, Ryan Renolds, Russell Wilson and Ciara.

California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement, "These actions marshal the generosity and innovative spirit of Californians to help us achieve two essential goals: getting more lifesaving supplies into our health care system and increasing our testing capacity."

When high-rollers are stepping up to help their beloved hometowns and municipalities by the rapid viral spread, others are focusing on global solutions by funding the search for better medical treatments and research for a preventative vaccine.

Wellcome Trust, a London-based medical research charity, is calling on big businesses to band together to donate $8 billion to medical research to develop more effective drug therapies, better diagnostic testing kits, and to find a universal vaccine that could provide immunity to the disease worldwide.

"The only exit strategy for this that I see is the development of diagnostics, therapies and vaccines," said Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust in a statement. "That's the only way we can return to normal. It is the best investment your business can make today."

And celebrities are getting the memo.

Right out of the gate, Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey pledged a whopping $1 billion, 28 percent of his wealth, in stock from his fund, Square, to a charitable fund called Start Small to be used for medical research to help "disarm this pandemic."

Bill Gates, whose Cassandra-like warnings that the world was unprepared for a pandemic went unheeded, stepped up with a 100-million-dollar pledge via the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a COVID-19 vaccine with partners like the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and to fund additional testing and treatment protocols.

Michael Dell, the founder of Dell computers, and his wife, Susan, have also committed $100 million to the effort.

"Our hope is that these resources will help catalyze a rapid and effective international response. This response should be guided by science, not fear, and it should build on steps that the World Health Organization has taken to date," Gates Foundation CEO Suzman said.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan committed $30 million through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), of which $25 million is earmarked for the Gate's COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator and $5 million will go to San Francisco for financial relief efforts.

"Figuring out drugs is always expensive, but philanthropy can be a role in kickstarting this," said Chan.