BOSTON, Feb. 11, 2021 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts («Blue Cross») today announced a new effort with the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers («the League») to help provide equitable access to COVID-19 vaccinations.

Blue Cross will contribute $1 million to fund free rides to and from COVID-19 vaccination sites across the state to support community health centers, underserved communities, and vulnerable populations. The new initiative was announced during a press conference today with Governor Charlie Baker at the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center.

«The goal now is to get people vaccinated, and access to those appointments is critical,» said Andrew Dreyfus, Blue Cross’ president and CEO. «We know lack of access to transportation is a significant barrier in communities hard hit by COVID-19. The Community Health Centers’ deep experience will help connect more of our neighbors with vaccines that can save lives and help end the pandemic.»

Blue Cross’ contribution will support tens of thousands of free rides to and from COVID-19 vaccination sites. The goal is to launch the program in the next few weeks in coordination with the League, which will assist in identifying participating community health centers.

«I’ve always said those closest to the disease need to be closest to the vaccine. Members of the communities we serve have disproportionately contracted, suffered, and died from this terrible virus,» said Michael Curry, president and CEO of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers and a member of the state’s COVID-19 Vaccine Advisory Group. «We are proud to partner with Blue Cross to help bring our patients better access to these life-saving vaccines.»

«Since the pandemic started, we have been on the frontlines, providing COVID-19 testing and treatment throughout the local community,» said Manny Lopes, president and CEO of the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center. «Now, we are on the frontlines of the vaccination effort too. We welcome this new initiative, which will make it easier for our most vulnerable patients to get the vaccinations they desperately need.»

Blue Cross and the League will work together toward their mutual goal of addressing disparities in access to COVID-19 vaccinations in underserved communities throughout Massachusetts. The organizations are looking at a variety of options which may include grants to community health centers, partnering with a ride share program, and other potential transportation solutions.

Today’s contribution comes on top of the $11 million Blue Cross and its Foundation has invested in the community during the COVID-19 crisis.

For more information on how Blue Cross is supporting its members during the COVID-19 public health emergency, visit the company’s Coronavirus Resource Center.

About Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (www.bluecrossma.org) is a community-focused, tax-paying, not-for-profit health plan headquartered in Boston. We are committed to the relentless pursuit of quality, affordable health care with an unparalleled consumer experience. Consistent with our promise to always put our members first, we are rated among the nation’s best health plans for member satisfaction and quality. Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn.BlueLinks for Employers

About the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers
The Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers (the League) is a 501 (c)(3) membership organization supporting and representing the Commonwealth‘s 52 community health centers, which offer primary and preventive care to more than one million residents. The League serves as an information resource on community-based primary care to policymakers, opinion leaders, and the media. It provides a wide range of technical assistance to its health center members, including advocacy on health policy issues, support for workforce development, clinical care and technology initiatives, and guidance to state leaders and community-based organizations seeking to open health centers.   

About the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center
The East Boston Neighborhood Health Center (EBNHC) has been a vital part of the community for 50 years, providing easily accessible, high-quality health care to all who live and work in East Boston and the surrounding communities of Chelsea, Revere, Everett, Winthrop, and, most recently, the South End. EBNHC is the largest community health center in Massachusetts and one of the largest in the nation, now serving nearly 120,000 patients and employing more than 1,300 staff members. We’re proud to be a 2020 Forbes Best-in-State Employer and a six-time awardee of the Boston Globe’s Top Places to Work.

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SOURCE Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts

BOSTON, Feb. 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts («Blue Cross») today announced a new effort with the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers («the League») to help provide equitable access to COVID-19 vaccinations.

Blue Cross will contribute $1 million to fund free rides to and from COVID-19 vaccination sites across the state to support community health centers, underserved communities, and vulnerable populations. The new initiative was announced during a press conference today with Governor Charlie Baker at the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center.

«The goal now is to get people vaccinated, and access to those appointments is critical,» said Andrew Dreyfus, Blue Cross’ president and CEO. «We know lack of access to transportation is a significant barrier in communities hard hit by COVID-19. The Community Health Centers’ deep experience will help connect more of our neighbors with vaccines that can save lives and help end the pandemic.»

Blue Cross’ contribution will support tens of thousands of free rides to and from COVID-19 vaccination sites. The goal is to launch the program in the next few weeks in coordination with the League, which will assist in identifying participating community health centers.

«I’ve always said those closest to the disease need to be closest to the vaccine. Members of the communities we serve have disproportionately contracted, suffered, and died from this terrible virus,» said Michael Curry, president and CEO of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers and a member of the state’s COVID-19 Vaccine Advisory Group. «We are proud to partner with Blue Cross to help bring our patients better access to these life-saving vaccines.»

«Since the pandemic started, we have been on the frontlines, providing COVID-19 testing and treatment throughout the local community,» said Manny Lopes, president and CEO of the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center. «Now, we are on the frontlines of the vaccination effort too. We welcome this new initiative, which will make it easier for our most vulnerable patients to get the vaccinations they desperately need.»

Blue Cross and the League will work together toward their mutual goal of addressing disparities in access to COVID-19 vaccinations in underserved communities throughout Massachusetts. The organizations are looking at a variety of options which may include grants to community health centers, partnering with a ride share program, and other potential transportation solutions.

Today’s contribution comes on top of the $11 million Blue Cross and its Foundation has invested in the community during the COVID-19 crisis.

For more information on how Blue Cross is supporting its members during the COVID-19 public health emergency, visit the company’s Coronavirus Resource Center.

About Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (www.bluecrossma.org) is a community-focused, tax-paying, not-for-profit health plan headquartered in Boston. We are committed to the relentless pursuit of quality, affordable health care with an unparalleled consumer experience. Consistent with our promise to always put our members first, we are rated among the nation’s best health plans for member satisfaction and quality. Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn.BlueLinks for Employers

About the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers
The Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers (the League) is a 501 (c)(3) membership organization supporting and representing the Commonwealth‘s 52 community health centers, which offer primary and preventive care to more than one million residents. The League serves as an information resource on community-based primary care to policymakers, opinion leaders, and the media. It provides a wide range of technical assistance to its health center members, including advocacy on health policy issues, support for workforce development, clinical care and technology initiatives, and guidance to state leaders and community-based organizations seeking to open health centers.   

About the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center
The East Boston Neighborhood Health Center (EBNHC) has been a vital part of the community for 50 years, providing easily accessible, high-quality health care to all who live and work in East Boston and the surrounding communities of Chelsea, Revere, Everett, Winthrop, and, most recently, the South End. EBNHC is the largest community health center in Massachusetts and one of the largest in the nation, now serving nearly 120,000 patients and employing more than 1,300 staff members. We’re proud to be a 2020 Forbes Best-in-State Employer and a six-time awardee of the Boston Globe’s Top Places to Work.

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SOURCE Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts

NEW YORK, Feb. 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Today, Carnegie Council is pleased to announce its 2021 Impact Initiatives. These initiatives identify pressing ethical issues, convene leading experts, and produce agenda-setting resources to educate and activate communities globally.

The Impact Initiatives will drive forward actionable real-world solutions in the areas of climate change, migration, artificial intelligence, and foreign policy. Each Impact Initiative is spearheaded by leading experts from academia, government, business, and civil society, who have joined Carnegie Council in the role of Senior Fellow.

«Each day, the world is becoming more connected, and yet, our political and social life continues to fracture. At Carnegie Council, we believe that ethics is at the heart of our greatest global challenges and that by working to empower ethics, we can discover common values and interests that lead to a better future. Our Impact Initiatives seek to achieve just this by creating groundbreaking models of engagement that produce ethics-focused thought leadership and build new active audiences around the globe.» – Joel Rosenthal, President, Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs

Carnegie Council 2021 Impact Initiatives and Senior Fellows:

Carnegie Artificial Intelligence & Equality Initiative (AIEI) 
AIEI seeks to understand the innumerable ways in which artificial intelligence (AI) impacts equality, and in response, propose potential mechanisms to ensure the benefits of AI for all people. The initiative is particularly focused on the impact of AI on vulnerable communities so that AI can be developed and deployed in a just, responsible, and inclusive manner. AIEI is led by Wendell Wallach, Carnegie-Uehiro Fellow and scholar at Yale University’s Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics, and Anja Kaspersen, Carnegie Council Senior Fellow and former director of the United Nations for Disarmament Affairs in Geneva. As part of the initiative, Wallach and Kaspersen have assembled an AIEI Advisory Board comprised of leaders from the academic, tech, non-profit, and public policy sectors.

Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative (C2G) 
The Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative (C2G) seeks to catalyze the creation of effective governance for climate-altering approaches, in particular for solar radiation modification (SRM) and large-scale carbon dioxide removal (CDR). In 2018, the IPCC reaffirmed that large-scale CDR is required in all pathways to limit global warming to 1.5°C with limited or no overshoot. Some scientists say SRM may also be needed to avoid that overshoot. C2G is impartial regarding the potential use of specific approaches, but not on the need for their governance – which includes multiple, diverse processes of learning, discussion, and decision-making, involving all sectors of society. It is not C2G’s role to influence the outcome of these processes, but to raise awareness of the critical governance questions that underpin CDR and SRM. C2G’s mission will have been achieved once their governance is taken on board by governments and intergovernmental bodies, including awareness raising, knowledge generation, and facilitating collaboration. C2G is led by Carnegie Council Senior Fellow Janos Pasztor.

Model International Mobility Convention (MIMC) 
The primary goal of the MIMC is to formulate new rules for migration and asylum that can benefit both migrants and refugees as well as their states of origin, transit, and destination. While people are as mobile as ever in our globalized world, the movement of people across borders lacks effective global regulation, which leaves many refugees in protracted displacement and many migrants unprotected in irregular and dire situations. MIMC is working to establish a new normative and legal agenda on international mobility that further entrenches the rights of mobile people and addresses the gaps in current international legal regimes. MIMC is led by Michael Doyle, Carnegie Council Senior Fellow and a University Professor of Columbia University in international affairs, law, and political science. Doyle is joined by an MIMC Leadership Network, an advisory board comprised of academic and policy experts in the fields on migration, human rights, national security, and refugee law and leaders from the public sector and civil society.

U.S. Global Engagement (USGE) 
USGE seeks to generate wider discussions on U.S. foreign policy in order to move ethical considerations to the center of policymakers’ thinking and to connect global affairs to the daily lives of Americans. For the last five years, post-Cold War bipartisan consensus in U.S. foreign policy – that the sustained deployment of U.S. power around the world is indispensable for maintaining the international system – has been called into question. Today, there are a series of competing narratives providing very different rationales for the degree and scope of U.S. engagement – each resting on a different understanding of what constitutes ethics in international affairs. USGE is led by Nikolas Gvosdev, Carnegie Council Senior Fellow and professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College and Tatiana Serafin, Carnegie Council Senior Fellow and journalism professor at Marymount Manhattan College. As part of the initiative, USGE recently launched The Doorstep, a new international news podcast that invites listeners to recognize that all global news is local in a borderless internet.

Building upon the above projects, Carnegie Council is also continuously exploring potential new Impact Initiatives for 2021 and beyond. Currently, Carnegie Council Senior Fellow Arthur Holland Michel is working to develop an Impact Initiative examining AI ethics in relation to international security. Further details on this initiative, as well as other projects, will be announced in 2021. To stay up to date on the Impact Initiatives and all things Carnegie Council, please visit www.carnegiecouncil.org.

About Carnegie Council:
Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs is an independent, research-driven nonprofit that generates ethical solutions to global problems. Founded before the outbreak of World War I, we convene conversations, produce materials in a range of media, and share resources for education, impact, and awareness. We are the world’s catalyst for ethical action. For more information, please visit carnegiecouncil.org and engage with us on YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter: @CarnegieCouncil, and Instagram: @Carnegie_Council.

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SOURCE Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs