George Soros directs more than $130M in foundation funds to combat coronavirus

George Soros is directing more than $130 million in funds from his Open Society Foundations toward helping vulnerable communities globally amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

The funding package includes $37 million to support workers and their families across New York City, the U.S. epicenter of the outbreak and home to Open Society’s largest office, according to its announcement. 

Soros’s group will also be directing $12 million to contribute to emergency relief for vulnerable workers in other U.S. cities and states, and $2.5 million for additional community efforts in Baltimore, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. 

Nearly $42 million will be directed to the foundation’s global partners to support low-income workers, protect refugees and provide access to new vaccines and treatments regardless of economic or citizenship status. 

Another $9 million of the funding will be directed toward the use of mandatory imprisonment and detention around the world, $3 million will go to local groups countering disinformation in Europe, and $3.5 million will be directed for southern Africa to support essential emergency services and care work. 

“The scale of this pandemic has laid bare the fault lines and injustices of our world,” Soros, a liberal financier, said in the statement. 

“We missed the opportunity to create a more just economy after the financial crisis of 2008 and provide a social safety net for the workers who are the heart of our societies. Today, we must change direction and ask ourselves: What kind of world will emerge from this catastrophe, and what can we do to make it a better one?” he added.

Globally, there are more than 2 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 140,000 deaths, based on data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.