Ellen DeGeneres, Mark Ruffalo, Debra Messing and others are calling for medical volunteers and supplies to help the Navajo Nation in a new pandemic-focused PSA.
In the clip, a montage of celebrities share the following message: “Dear America, 150 years ago we made a promise that the beautiful citizens of the Navajo Nation would be cared for the same way all Americans are, to give the first people of this land the respect and dignity we’ve owed them for a long time. Now is the time to make good on our promises.”
The PSA notes the impact COVID-19 has had on the Navajo Nation, which spans 27,000 square miles and has 175,000 people living on the reservation. Those inhabitants have access to 12 health care facilities and just 170 hospital beds, 13 ICU beds, 52 isolation rooms and 28 ventilators. There have been 2,292 cases of the novel coronavirus and 73 deaths within the Navajo Nation as of Sunday.
The PSA, part of the grassroots initiative Protect the Sacred, stresses the need for test kits, medicine and personal protective equipment including masks, gowns and face shields, as well as medical staff.
“The danger is this: Our elders are at the greatest risk. The keepers of our stories, language and culture,” says Protect the Sacred director Allie Young in the PSA.
Information on how to donate and sign up to be a medical volunteer can be found at ProtectTheSacred.care.
Watch the PSA, below.
