Summer 2020 • Vol
Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group Citizen agenda: An update for members of MASSPIRG Summer 2020 • Vol. 39, No. 2 • More at https://masspirg.org HEALTHY LIVING PIRG assembled a COVID-19 response team of policy experts, advocates, organizers and researchers. Credits: (clockwise from top left) WSYX News ABC 6, U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Pedro Tenorio, WFXT, Staff, Mongkolchon Akesin via Shutterstock, WLEX-TV, Pittsburgh’s Action News 4, Screenshot of Amazon.com, Scripps National News. Responding to the COVID-19 crisis The COVID-19 pandemic has forced Americans were not enough COVID-19 tests available for to confront harsh realities—from concern for all who would need them. The inability to ade- the health and safety of themselves and their quately test for the virus left health professionals families, to the financial struggles brought on by and lawmakers with an incomplete picture as to mass layoffs and a dampened economy. the scope of the problem. In response to the crisis, MASSPIRG and U.S. MASSPIRG, U.S. PIRG Education Fund and our PIRG Education Fund, the research and policy national network called on Adm. Brett Giroir, the arm of our national network, have continued head of the government’s coronavirus testing re- to work—from a safe social distance—for a sponse, to implement a national plan for scaling healthier, safer world, calling for measures to up our testing capacity as quickly as possible. improve our country’s ability to discover and care for COVID-19 cases, to protect consumers MASSPIRG and U.S. PIRG Education Fund sup- MEMBER from price gouging in the marketplace, and to ported plans crafted by public health experts— RESOURCES increase production and distribution of vital including former Food and Drug Administration Read the latest news and sign up for email medical supplies as rapidly as possible.
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