Coronavirus: ‘New Amsterdam’ EP David Schulner On Helping New York Relief Efforts With Medical Supplies

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Yesterday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio revealed that the city will run out of medical supplies in between two and three weeks if infections continue at the current rate. Today, that rate further accelerated, prompting the Mayor to call NYC “the epicenter of this crisis” with 5,151 confirmed infections as of Friday, about a third of all U.S. coronavirus cases.

With New York hospitals in dire need of supplies, NBC drama New Amsterdam, which was inspired by New York’s Bellevue public hospital and films at Bellevue and the city’s Kings County Hospital, sprung into action.

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“Our tireless crew, the costume dept., set dec, props, all went through every storage area, every nook and cranny of every set and put together half a truck load of PPE, masks, gloves, gowns and face masks,” New Amsterdam creator, executive producer and showrunner David Schulner told Deadline. “While we work closely with Bellevue and Kings County Hospital we are working with NYC relief efforts to find the most needy.”

The items were delivered to the New York State Department of Health early Friday morning.

New Amsterdam, starring Ryan Eggold, is not the only medical drama series to donate their supplies to local hospitals amid the coronavirus health crisis — ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy and spinoff Station 19 as well as The Good Doctor and Fox’s The Resident also have pitched in the relief efforts by donating masks, gowns, gloves to medical workers and hospitals in need.

But New Amsterdam is the only medical drama filming in New York where the need is the greatest and conditions have been deteriorating fast, prompting a state-wide stay-at-home order.

New Amsterdam also has a personal connection to the outbreak — one of its new recurring guest stars, Hawaii Five-0 alum Daniel Dae Kim, revealed yesterday a positive coronavirus test, noting that he experienced the first symptoms on the flight home from New York where he had been filming New Amsterdam until production was shut down late last week over the pandemic. Ironically, as Kim noted, he plays a doctor who gets recruited to a hospital to help patients during a flu epidemic on the show. There are currently no other known COVID-19 cases on New Amsterdam.

Created by Schulner, New Amsterdam is produced by Dr. Eric Manheimer, MD, the former medical director at New York City’s Bellevue Hospital and author of the memoir Twelve Patients: Life and Death at Bellevue Hospital, on whose true story the series is based.

New Amsterdam has been a breakout for NBC. Now in its second year, the medical drama was recently renewed for three more seasons.

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