In the statement, the company cites information from the University of Washington’s School of Medicine that suggests if more Americans embraced COVID safety protocols, including wearing masks, that 50,000 or more lives could be saved between now and the end of March.
“The COVID pandemic has tested us all in ways we could not have imagined a year ago,” Berg said in the statement. “People are weary, beat down, and it would be easy to let our guard down now. But we have to keep fighting for each other; we’re almost there. As we enter 2021, we wanted to help inspire Americans to come together and save lives until the vaccines arrive in numbers. We need to finish strong. We got this.”
The ad includes scenes of front-line workers and COVID victims, including a survivor named John Williams, 68, from Kansas City, whom the company states said “beat COVID-19 after 20 days on and off a ventilator.”
Ford has emerged as a corporate leader in the fight against COVID. It has used its plants to make 20 million face shields, 50,000 ventilators and more than 32,000 powered air-purifying respirators in collaboration with 3M, while donating more than 55 million face masks to nonprofit organizations.
Berg earlier this year filmed front-line workers, including those affiliated with the UAW, making personal protective equipment for a short documentary called “On the Line.”
