Coronavirus Files: Job loss hits hard; stimulus signed; experts rate new CDC guidelines

coronavirus
March 15, 2021

Since last April, The Center for Health Journalism has been publishing a special newsletter geared to journalists as they report on one of the biggest and most complex stories of our times. Each Monday, while the pandemic runs its course, The Coronavirus Files will provide tips and resources and highlight exemplary work to help you with your coverage. This week, the Center for Health Journalism’s Coronavirus Files Monday newsletter is curated and reported by science writer Amber Dance, PhD. Have a suggestion or a request? Write us at editor@centerforhealthjournalism.org.

 

Lasting unemployment for POC, women, disabled and undocumented

One year into the pandemic, millions of U.S. residents are still out of the jobs they had before, reports Ella Koeze at The New York Times. Women’s employment lags behind men’s in every demographic, with Black and Hispanic women — who are more likely to work in hard-hit service, leisure and hospitality industries — the worst off. And the Center for Health Journalism detailed the ongoing impact of the pandemic on women in a recent webinar that cited the out-of-proportion burden of parenting on the nation’s women, eroding careers and mental health.
 
Koeze notes that older and younger workers are also more likely to remain underemployed, as are those with lower education levels and those previously earning less than about $20 per hour. In another Times piece, Andy Newman highlights the disproportionate economic impact of the pandemic on people with disabilities, who also tend to work in shut-down industries.
 
Meanwhile, the second in a series of videos about pandemic inequality from CNN focuses on the plight of undocumented immigrants in Queens, New York. Underemployed, many immigrants are struggling to pay for food and rent, and yet remain ineligible for federal benefits from the three relief bills passed since the pandemic began.
 
Help on the way from stimulus package
 
On March 11, President Joe Biden signed the third bill, a $1.9 trillion stimulus package known as the American Rescue Plan Act. At The Wall Street Journal, Stephanie Stamm and Maureen Linke break down the spending, which includes individual stimulus checks and funds for health, health insurance subsidies, education, and other programs alongside $123 billion that more specifically targets the virus itself.
 
Some critics claim that’s a pretty small slice of $1.9 trillion going after the disease, but the fact-checking news network VERIFY debunks that idea. It’s true that more than 15% of the spending is going towards “long-standing policy priorities that are not directly related to the current crisis,” according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, but most line items are pandemic relief in one form or another. It’s an unprecedented investment that “contains a number of provisions that have little to do directly with the coronavirus and that aim to strengthen the country’s frayed social safety net,” writes Giovanni Russonello in The New York Times. The bill’s provisions include expanded insurance subsidies for people who’ve been laid off, credits to reduce premiums for ACA plans, and incentives for hold-out states to expand Medicaid, as Joyce Frieden explains for MedPage Today.
 
After the vaccine: Is CDC on the right track?
 
With one-tenth of the U.S. population fully immunized against the coronavirus, the CDC on March 8 released long-awaited guidelines for how those fully vaccinated folks can behave. Hanging out unmasked with low-risk people is in; unnecessary travel — which can potentially spread variants — is still out. On March 10, the CDC also greenlighted visits, ideally outdoors, to nursing home residents, who were among the first wave of Americans to be vaccinated.
 
Epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina noted it’s meaningful that the risk-averse CDC is willing to let vaccinated people interact with low-risk, unvaccinated family members while unmasked. That suggests the agency is pretty sure transmission by vaccinated people is “really low” or that it’s confident we know which groups are high or low risk, Jetelina writes. That tracks with recent studies indicating vaccines stymie asymptomatic infections, which implies they may also prevent transmission.
 
Among public health experts, opinions varied. “CDC totally gets it right,” tweeted Brown University’s Dr. Ashish Jha. But Dr. Leana Wen at George Washington University called the guidelines “far too cautious.” She told AP’s Mike Stobbe the agency should include advice on visiting restaurants and other businesses that are already opening up in many states. (More advice is expected in the coming weeks.) In contrast, Jason Murdock at Newsweek talked to experts who were sour on the new freedoms while viral variants are swirling in the air. “Allowing fully vaccinated people to meet with those who are not vaccinated is asking for trouble,” said Lawrence Young, a professor of oncology in the U.K.
 
This spring, expect more vaccine, but maybe more cases, too
 
Vaccine appointments are going unfilled at CVS pharmacies in Alabama, South Carolina and Louisiana, reports Phil Galewitz at Kaiser Health News. Several states are expanding who’s eligible, and unfilled appointments may multiply as vaccines become widely available. USA Today suggests the nation “could soon be swimming in COVID-19 vaccines” — within two months, the U.S. will have shipped enough vaccine to fill a 55,000-gallon pool, writes Elizabeth Weise. Biden recently announced plans to buy another 100 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, on top of the 100 million already secured, and pledged to make every adult eligible for a shot by May 1.
 
For reporters, that means the story will likely shift from articles about seniors and other struggling to find scarce shots to tales of unused doses and people reluctant to take the free vaccines. In the latest Pew Research poll, 30% of Americans said they probably or definitely wouldn’t get a vaccine. Republicans are among the reluctant, and holdouts could imperil the quest for herd immunity. “When we start to have more vaccine available, we’re really going to be in bad shape because what we’re going to see is a lot of people who don’t want to get vaccinated,” public health expert Bernadette Boden-Albala of the University of California, Irvine, told Weise.
 
Journalists will also want to keep a sharp eye out for a potential spring surge of cases. Nationwide, cases are currently falling, but slowly. “We are in the eye of the hurricane,” epidemiologist Michael Osterholm recently told NBC’s Meet the Press. Osterholm told CNN the highly transmissible U.K. variant (B.1.1.7), plus loosening of restrictions, could fuel a fourth spike in the next six to 14 weeks. “How quickly we will vaccinate versus whether we have another surge really relies on what happens in March and April,” said CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky at a National League of Cities conference.
 
From the Center for Health Journalism
 
2021 Domestic Violence Symposium and Impact Reporting Fund
 
Domestic violence affects tens of millions of Americans every year. Yet media outlets mostly treat incidents as “cops” items, if they cover them at all, as opposed to treating domestic violence as a public health problem. Our free two-day symposium will help journalists understand the root causes and promising prevention, intervention and treatment approaches. Plus, participants will be able to apply for grants to report California-focused projects.
April 16 and 23, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. PT. More info and sign-up link here.
 
We’re seeking a key journalism hire!
 
Are you passionate about helping journalists understand and illuminate the social factors that contribute to health and health disparities at a time when COVID-19 has highlighted the costs of such inequities? Looking to play a big role in shaping journalism today in the United States? The USC Center for Health Journalism seeks an enterprising and experienced journalism leader for our new position of “Manager of Projects.”
 
 
What we're reading
 
  • “After pandemic year, weary world looks back — and forward,” by Michelle R. Smith and Andrew Meldrium, AP
  • “A viral tsunami: How the underestimated coronavirus took over the world,” by Joel Aschenbach, Ariana Eunjung Cha and Frances Stead Sellers, The Washington Post
  • “The uncounted: People who are homeless are invisible victims of Covid-19,” by Usha Lee McFarling, STAT
  • “The pandemic is hard for teens and hard for parents. These young women are both.” By Rainesford Stauffer, The Lily
  • “Pregnancy and COVID: what the data say,” by Nidhi Subbaraman, Nature
  • “The pandemic can’t end while wealthy nations hoard shots,” by Maryn McKenna, WIRED
  • “Alaska’s remote villages race against time and history,” by Mike Baker and Serge F. Kovaleski, The New York Times
  • “’An accelerated cauldron of evolution’: COVID-19 patients with cancer, HIV may play a role in emergence of variants,” by Ariana Eunjung Cha, The Washington Post

 

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