HCAN: COVID and Pre-Existing Conditions (February, 2020)
Economic Policy Institute: The economic fallout of COVID-19 (December, 2020)
Union Veterans Council: Don’t Leave Veterans Behind in COVID-19 Relief.
Here is the latest COVID-19 Hardship Tracker from the Coalition on Human Needs [2/26/21]
Health Impacts of COVID 19
- More than 513,000 people have died in the United States from COVID-19 and more than 28 million have been infected [Johns Hopkins University, 2/28/21]
- “Meanwhile, the pandemic has led to a dramatic increase in the number of people who say their mental health has suffered, rising from 1 in 3 people in March to more than half of people polled by KFF in July.” [Kaiser Health News, 2/5/21]
Economic and Other Impacts of COVID 19
- The Poverty Rate Increased By 2.4 Percent In The Second Half Of 2020, Marking The Sharpest Rise In Poverty In The United States Since The 1960s. “The end of 2020 brought the sharpest rise in the U.S. poverty rate since the 1960s, according to a study released Monday. Economists Bruce Meyer, from the University of Chicago, and James Sullivan of the University of Notre Dame found that the poverty rate increased by 2.4 percentage points during the latter half of 2020 as the U.S. continued to suffer the economic impacts from Covid-19. That percentage-point rise is nearly double the largest annual increase in poverty since the 1960s. ” [Bloomberg, 1/25/21]
- The Poverty Rate Among Black Americans Jumped By 5.4 Percent In The Same Period. “Moreover, the poverty rate for Black Americans is estimated to have jumped by 5.4 percentage points, or by 2.4 million individuals.” [Bloomberg, 1/25/21]
- 900,000 Workers Filed For State Unemployment Benefits In The Last Week Of The Trump Presidency, Compared To 282,000 This Time Last Year. “The Labor Department said Thursday that 961,000 workers filed initial claims for state unemployment benefits last week. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the total was 900,000. The figures were down from the previous week but remain extraordinarily high by historical standards and have recently reached levels not seen since midsummer. In the comparable week a year ago, before the pandemic, there were 282,000 initial claims.” [New York Times, 1/21/21]
- “Some 15 million adults — 1 in 5 adult renters — report that they are not caught up on their rent payments, according to the latest Census Pulse survey. While estimates vary, experts agree that renters likely already owe tens of billions of dollars in back rent and will need more help paying rent in coming months. Nearly 5 million renters say they have lost employment income and expect to be evicted soon. Renters struggling to keep up on their rent are disproportionately households with children and people of color, particularly people who are Black or Latino.” [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2/8/21]
Racial Disparities and the Pandemic
- Black, Latino, and American Indian/Alaska Natives all have disproportionate rates of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations. Among adults ages 65 and older, Black, Latino, and American Indian/Alaska Natives are disproportionately dying of COVID-19 compared to older White adults. [Kaiser Family Foundation, 1/16/21]
- Across the states that report demographic data, “there is a largely consistent pattern of Black and Hispanic people receiving smaller shares of vaccinations compared to their shares of cases and deaths and compared to their shares of the total population.” [Kaiser Family Foundation, 2/18/21]
Public Perception of the Pandemic
- More than half of voters are confident that President Joe Biden will be able to make COVID vaccines widely available [Axios, 2/23/21]
- Enthusiasm to receive a COVID-19 vaccination is rising across all racial and ethnic groups, but significant percentages of some demographics, including Black and Latino adults, Republicans and residents of rural areas, are either reticent or opposed to being vaccinated [Kaiser Family Foundation, 2/26/21]
