OUR COVID-19 RESPONSE PROJECT
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pacific Council is leveraging its member network to coordinate rapid relief projects in support of domestic and international community needs. One of our proven strengths is connecting members across borders and fields. We are responding to the current pandemic crisis by identifying needs in our community, including medical providers, the LA Consular Corps, and others, and linking them to related industries that can meet their demand.
We have an eye toward specific Los Angeles communities that are central to our mission, such as the immigrant and refugee communities throughout our city. We also recognize that personal protective equipment (PPE) remains in short supply for medical providers in Los Angeles and elsewhere and are working to connect manufacturers and supply chain managers to medical providers within our member network and partner community.
By connecting people to projects and projects to resources, the Pacific Council is increasing civic participation and creating stronger local response on global issues.
A Pandemic Starts and Ends Locally and Globally
Since its earliest traces, the novel coronavirus has been both a local and global issue, with the clearest local-to-global links witnessed in this lifetime. The major global problems posed by COVID-19 are economic and systemic, drastically slowing trade and tourism among nations as workers stay home and borders close. Global systems that have become more complex over the last century must cooperate and communicate with each other with urgency and clarity. Due to the complexity of such systems, and the lack of pandemic preparedness worldwide, our nations are experiencing a massive disruption, which is trickling down to hundreds of millions of individuals around the globe in the form of job loss, school closure, and more. In short, the pandemic starts globally and locally at the same time and will end the same way.
Los Angeles and California have been at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19, issuing “safer at home” orders earlier than most U.S. states. As the most prominent and established international affairs organization along the West Coast, the Pacific Council on International Policy started sharing expertise on the virus while it was still centralized in Wuhan, China, giving members early insight to this evolving and powerful force.
Given the Council’s focus and understanding of local-to-global issues, a pandemic of this size and magnitude is intellectually where we operate and can share expertise and foster outcome-driven discourse. Our member community is poised and ready to take action to address the world’s most pressing issues, even while abiding by local “stay at home” ordinances.
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If you’d like to help the Pacific Council's efforts to respond to current needs related to the COVID-19 pandemic, contact Ashley McKenzie at amckenzie@pacificcouncil.org.
