On Tuesday night, we heard from Bob Giannino, the president and CEO of the United Way of Massachusetts Bay, about an opinion piece he published that called for a statewide response to the pandemic.
According to Giannino, the pandemic is exposing existing inequities within the state. A cohesive coronavirus response, says Giannino, deals with the pandemic as a set of systemic problems rather than in a piecemeal fashion.
"You think about how disproportionately hit Black and Latinx residents and families have been by this," said Giannino. "That speaks to a long and persistent set of challenges relative to communities of color, having the economic power and sustainability to move themselves ... through a challenge like the one that we've had. So it's very much acted as a stress test. And what we've seen is we've failed as a society because so many of our neighbors were stressed during this period and have not been able to fully recover from it."
Giannino says the United Way of Massachusetts Bay has raised and distributed roughly $8 million to around 300,00 households in coronavirus relief since the pandemic began.
