A member of President-elect Joe Biden's COVID-19 task force has partnered with the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation to create a fund to help families of front-line healthcare workers who have died from the coronavirus.
The Frontline Families Fund was created by the foundation with Michael Osterholm, PhD, who directs the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
"There are few who understand the impact of COVID-19 better than world-renowned epidemiologist Dr. Michael Osterholm," the fund website states. "He envisioned this fund, recognizing the grave risk that healthcare workers face both now and in the future."
In a Nov. 16 news release, Dr. Osterholm said the fund will provide direct financial support to families and scholarships for post-secondary education to children of about 1,400 front-line healthcare workers who died during the pandemic. He said the fund also aims to shed light on how the pandemic has disproportionately affected Black people, Indigenous people and other people of color.
Other fund partners are Scholarship America and the Brave of Heart Fund.
More information about the fund and donations is available here.
More articles on workforce:
Premier Health to outsource about 700 food, environmental services jobs
How hospitals can boost employee morale this winter
VA clinicians can practice across state lines, interim rule affirms