Sacha Baron Cohen and Wife Isla Fisher Help Airlift Cargo of PPE to UK Healthcare Workers
British-Jewish actor Sacha Baron Cohen and his wife, Australian actress Isla Fisher, helped donate a cargo of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to healthcare workers in the UK who are on the frontlines fighting the coronavirus.
The couple partnered with Salesforce, DMGT, and Mail newspapers to airlift 100,000 masks and 50,000 coveralls to the UK for National Health Service (NHS) workers through a new charity called Mail Force.
The PPE was flown over from China with more equipment set to come in the coming days, the UK’s Metro reported.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said in a tweet on Wednesday that the supplies of PPE had just landed at London’s Heathrow Airport.
Cohen replied saying, “Isla and I are so happy to have such persistent and generous partners in getting this done. Businesses please follow and get PPE in through #ProjectHope in US or #MailForce in UK.”
A partnership between Salesforce, @dmgtplc, & @SachaBaronCohen just landed a plane in London Heathrow with @British_Airways full of PPE to protect @NHSuk doctors & nurses on the front line. Thank you Lord Rothermere for your leadership. https://t.co/Wd4jvtkndk pic.twitter.com/DvZIySPCXA
— Marc Benioff (@Benioff) April 28, 2020
The UK has been struggling with a PPE shortage and a recent BBC investigation found that the government had failed to buy enough protective equipment to deal with a pandemic. There were no gowns, visors, swabs or body bags in the government’s pandemic stockpile when COVID-19 reached the UK, according to the investigation.
The UK has reported 26,097 coronavirus fatalities, the highest death toll in the world behind the US and Italy.