https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...gers-job-losses-country-hit-hard-coronavirus/
'Food banks are empty': US staggers under job losses as country hit hard by coronavirus
Unprecedented 17 million people in US have lost their jobs in the past three weeks - more than twice the number lost in 2008 recession
Salina Cutler was handed her final paycheck on March 12, which totalled just $7.84 (£6.28). The restaurant in Maryland where she worked as a waitress was forced to close because of the coronavirus shutdown and could offer no assurance it would be able to reopen.
Within days, the 24-year-old single mother had gone through her savings feeding her two children and had to start pawning her belongings.
“When I ran out of things to sell, I turned to Twitter asking people for help. Some days I get lucky and sometimes I have gone two or three days without being able to eat,” she told The Telegraph. “To make sure my kids don't go hungry I have walked parking lots picking up change.”
Ms Cutler is one of a staggering 17 million people in the US who have lost their jobs in the past three weeks.
The magnitude of the layoffs has led economists to envision as many as 20 million lost jobs by the end of April - more than double the 8.7 million lost over the course of two years during the Great Recession in 2008.
The US, which has recorded nearly 500,000 Covid-19 cases and 15,000 deaths, is on course to become the hardest hit country in the world.
America’s economy is also uniquely vulnerable to the virus, as its lack of a robust welfare system is likely to seriously hinder the country's recovery.
Nationally, the rate of unemployment is 13 per cent of the workforce and rising at a speed unmatched in history. In lower income areas like Ms Cutler's hometown of Hagerstown in Maryland, the figure is as high as one in two people.
“It’s rarer to know someone who got to keep working, almost everyone I know has lost their job,” Ms Cutler said.
“And what makes everything worse is that local community and state programmes are so overwhelmed, so understaffed and so underprepared that they have started waitlisting people.
“Food banks in my area are empty. Local organisations are out of funding and so many people have filed for unemployment that the process has pretty much come to a halt.”
Local television reports from Maryland, Florida, Pennsylvania, and states across the country show miles-long queues outside food banks. Those who find themselves at the back of the line often leave empty-handed.
Ms Cutler signs on to social media sites like Twitter every morning responding to messages from accounts offering free cash giveaways. Sometimes the amounts are as low as $5 or $10, but in desperate times she will take whatever she can get.
For many, rent was due on the first of the month. More than a third of Americans were unable to pay on time for April, according to the National Multifamily Housing Council.
If the jobless cannot pay their bills, there could be a knock-on effect of further layoffs and businesses claiming bankruptcy. The greater the damage, the lower the chance of a quick economic rebound once the medical crisis eases.
Congress last week passed legislation for a $2 trillion stimulus package aimed at helping the economy recover. The government will provide businesses with low-interest loans to help them avoid redundancies.
Laid-off workers are also eligible for unemployment benefits that could leave those with low-to-middle incomes at least as well off as they were in their job, but the money cannot come quick enough for some.
Many have expressed frustration about the process for seeking benefits as a flood of applications has overwhelmed many state offices. Few states have managed yet to distribute to recipients the $600 a week in unemployment aid that the federal package provided.
Recent studies showed that 40 per cent of Americans are only ever one missed paycheck away from poverty.
When President Donald Trump said he did not want the cure to be worse than the disease, he was calculating the economic fallout of a prolonged shutdown.
Ms Cutler, who has basic Medicare cover for her and her two boys, is inclined to agree. She cannot afford to worry about the virus, which has claimed the lives of more than 13,000 Americans, because of the more immediate cost to her young family.
“Honestly I’m more concerned about the financial side. I can’t feed my kids anymore. That’s a huge problem for me,” she said. “It has also caused my mental health to decline. My depression has never been so bad in my life as it is now and I know it’s because I can’t take care of my children.”
Residents of poorer areas three times more likely to die
The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated already deep levels of inequality across the US.
“This virus doesn’t discriminate,” said Mark Levine, Chair of New York City Council health committee. “But our society does.
“Inequality in housing, employment and especially healthcare has meant coronavirus has hit [poorer] communities disproportionately hard. We see it in data from Missouri, Milwaukee, Chicago, and New York.”
Manhattan, one of the most affluent of New York City’s five boroughs, has recorded 21 deaths from the coronavirus per 100,000 residents. The Bronx, one of the poorest, has seen 45, and Queens almost 60.
Lower-income Americans are not just more likely to catch the virus, they are more likely to die from it too. Experts point to underlying conditions that are more likely to affect minority communities such as heart disease and diabetes - which greatly affect a coronavirus patient's prognosis - and lack of access to medical care as key factors.
A survey last year found that 84.2 million of America's 327 million population – were uninsured or underinsured.
Uncomfortable racial disparities have also emerged as more data has become available.
In Louisiana, African-Americans account for 70 per cent of deaths despite making up just 32 per cent of the population. In Chicago, black Americans account for 68 per cent of the city’s 118 deaths, while making up 30 per cent of the city’s population.
America’s economy is also uniquely vulnerable to the virus. Its lack of a robust welfare system is likely to seriously hinder the country's recovery.
“We’re seeing this around the country,” said Andrew Cuomo, New York’s governor, alluding to a much wider picture. “Comorbidity, I understand that, but I think there’s something more to it. You know, it always seems that the poorest people pay the highest price. Why is that?”
Mr Cuomo said he would step up testing in majority nonwhite communities, adding that there should also be more research into whether the number of Latino and African-American public workers “who don’t have a choice but to go out every day and drive the train” were putting those communities at risk.
'We are only as healthy as the person with no insurance'
Derrick Smit, an anaesthetist working in a major New York hospital, said some patients, even on their deathbeds, are more worried about how they will afford treatment than if it will make them better.
“‘Who’s going to pay for it?’” these were the last words I’ll never forget - the response my patient gasped out between laboured breaths to me and my team after we explained that he needed to be intubated and placed on a ventilator,” Mr Smit said.
“This situation is by far the worst thing I’ve witnessed in my collective 12 years of critical care and anesthesia and having to hear a dying patient use his last words to worry about healthcare finances really hit me.
“I understood his worry, but I just thought it was pretty emblematic of what’s going wrong in our country right now,” he told The Telegraph.
Under the new legislation, testing for Covid-19 is free, as is the cost of a doctor’s visit or trip to the emergency room to get the test. But if a person does test positive and requires treatment the subsequent hospital bills could easily cost them tens of thousands of dollars, even those with insurance.
Insurers will cover a patient at certain hospitals and only for certain types of treatment.
The dramatic rise in the number of home deaths could suggest the fine print might well be confusing enough to put people off seeking help when they desperately need it.
“Not everyone who needs treatment will get treatment,” said Vanessa Kerry, associate professor at Harvard Medical School. “It’s not because of any rationing, it’s because there are too many Americans who don’t have access to healthcare, don’t have an insurance plan, or aren’t in a system because they live in urban poverty that does not allow them to seek the care they need.”
On the Global Health Security Index, a report card that grades every country on its pandemic preparedness, the US has a score of 83.5 - the world’s highest. But during the recent outbreak it has fared much worse than countries with universal healthcare systems.
“This country is truly a failed state,” Mr Smit railed. “And it’s so sickening to witness firsthand, more blatantly than ever."
"When it comes to a crisis like this," he said, "We are all only as healthy as the person who does not have insurance."
'Food banks are empty': US staggers under job losses as country hit hard by coronavirus
Unprecedented 17 million people in US have lost their jobs in the past three weeks - more than twice the number lost in 2008 recession
Salina Cutler was handed her final paycheck on March 12, which totalled just $7.84 (£6.28). The restaurant in Maryland where she worked as a waitress was forced to close because of the coronavirus shutdown and could offer no assurance it would be able to reopen.
Within days, the 24-year-old single mother had gone through her savings feeding her two children and had to start pawning her belongings.
“When I ran out of things to sell, I turned to Twitter asking people for help. Some days I get lucky and sometimes I have gone two or three days without being able to eat,” she told The Telegraph. “To make sure my kids don't go hungry I have walked parking lots picking up change.”
Ms Cutler is one of a staggering 17 million people in the US who have lost their jobs in the past three weeks.
The magnitude of the layoffs has led economists to envision as many as 20 million lost jobs by the end of April - more than double the 8.7 million lost over the course of two years during the Great Recession in 2008.
The US, which has recorded nearly 500,000 Covid-19 cases and 15,000 deaths, is on course to become the hardest hit country in the world.
America’s economy is also uniquely vulnerable to the virus, as its lack of a robust welfare system is likely to seriously hinder the country's recovery.
Nationally, the rate of unemployment is 13 per cent of the workforce and rising at a speed unmatched in history. In lower income areas like Ms Cutler's hometown of Hagerstown in Maryland, the figure is as high as one in two people.
“It’s rarer to know someone who got to keep working, almost everyone I know has lost their job,” Ms Cutler said.
“And what makes everything worse is that local community and state programmes are so overwhelmed, so understaffed and so underprepared that they have started waitlisting people.
“Food banks in my area are empty. Local organisations are out of funding and so many people have filed for unemployment that the process has pretty much come to a halt.”
Local television reports from Maryland, Florida, Pennsylvania, and states across the country show miles-long queues outside food banks. Those who find themselves at the back of the line often leave empty-handed.
Ms Cutler signs on to social media sites like Twitter every morning responding to messages from accounts offering free cash giveaways. Sometimes the amounts are as low as $5 or $10, but in desperate times she will take whatever she can get.
For many, rent was due on the first of the month. More than a third of Americans were unable to pay on time for April, according to the National Multifamily Housing Council.
If the jobless cannot pay their bills, there could be a knock-on effect of further layoffs and businesses claiming bankruptcy. The greater the damage, the lower the chance of a quick economic rebound once the medical crisis eases.
Congress last week passed legislation for a $2 trillion stimulus package aimed at helping the economy recover. The government will provide businesses with low-interest loans to help them avoid redundancies.
Laid-off workers are also eligible for unemployment benefits that could leave those with low-to-middle incomes at least as well off as they were in their job, but the money cannot come quick enough for some.
Many have expressed frustration about the process for seeking benefits as a flood of applications has overwhelmed many state offices. Few states have managed yet to distribute to recipients the $600 a week in unemployment aid that the federal package provided.
Recent studies showed that 40 per cent of Americans are only ever one missed paycheck away from poverty.
When President Donald Trump said he did not want the cure to be worse than the disease, he was calculating the economic fallout of a prolonged shutdown.
Ms Cutler, who has basic Medicare cover for her and her two boys, is inclined to agree. She cannot afford to worry about the virus, which has claimed the lives of more than 13,000 Americans, because of the more immediate cost to her young family.
“Honestly I’m more concerned about the financial side. I can’t feed my kids anymore. That’s a huge problem for me,” she said. “It has also caused my mental health to decline. My depression has never been so bad in my life as it is now and I know it’s because I can’t take care of my children.”
Residents of poorer areas three times more likely to die
The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated already deep levels of inequality across the US.
“This virus doesn’t discriminate,” said Mark Levine, Chair of New York City Council health committee. “But our society does.
“Inequality in housing, employment and especially healthcare has meant coronavirus has hit [poorer] communities disproportionately hard. We see it in data from Missouri, Milwaukee, Chicago, and New York.”
Manhattan, one of the most affluent of New York City’s five boroughs, has recorded 21 deaths from the coronavirus per 100,000 residents. The Bronx, one of the poorest, has seen 45, and Queens almost 60.
Lower-income Americans are not just more likely to catch the virus, they are more likely to die from it too. Experts point to underlying conditions that are more likely to affect minority communities such as heart disease and diabetes - which greatly affect a coronavirus patient's prognosis - and lack of access to medical care as key factors.
A survey last year found that 84.2 million of America's 327 million population – were uninsured or underinsured.
Uncomfortable racial disparities have also emerged as more data has become available.
In Louisiana, African-Americans account for 70 per cent of deaths despite making up just 32 per cent of the population. In Chicago, black Americans account for 68 per cent of the city’s 118 deaths, while making up 30 per cent of the city’s population.
America’s economy is also uniquely vulnerable to the virus. Its lack of a robust welfare system is likely to seriously hinder the country's recovery.
“We’re seeing this around the country,” said Andrew Cuomo, New York’s governor, alluding to a much wider picture. “Comorbidity, I understand that, but I think there’s something more to it. You know, it always seems that the poorest people pay the highest price. Why is that?”
Mr Cuomo said he would step up testing in majority nonwhite communities, adding that there should also be more research into whether the number of Latino and African-American public workers “who don’t have a choice but to go out every day and drive the train” were putting those communities at risk.
'We are only as healthy as the person with no insurance'
Derrick Smit, an anaesthetist working in a major New York hospital, said some patients, even on their deathbeds, are more worried about how they will afford treatment than if it will make them better.
“‘Who’s going to pay for it?’” these were the last words I’ll never forget - the response my patient gasped out between laboured breaths to me and my team after we explained that he needed to be intubated and placed on a ventilator,” Mr Smit said.
“This situation is by far the worst thing I’ve witnessed in my collective 12 years of critical care and anesthesia and having to hear a dying patient use his last words to worry about healthcare finances really hit me.
“I understood his worry, but I just thought it was pretty emblematic of what’s going wrong in our country right now,” he told The Telegraph.
Under the new legislation, testing for Covid-19 is free, as is the cost of a doctor’s visit or trip to the emergency room to get the test. But if a person does test positive and requires treatment the subsequent hospital bills could easily cost them tens of thousands of dollars, even those with insurance.
Insurers will cover a patient at certain hospitals and only for certain types of treatment.
The dramatic rise in the number of home deaths could suggest the fine print might well be confusing enough to put people off seeking help when they desperately need it.
“Not everyone who needs treatment will get treatment,” said Vanessa Kerry, associate professor at Harvard Medical School. “It’s not because of any rationing, it’s because there are too many Americans who don’t have access to healthcare, don’t have an insurance plan, or aren’t in a system because they live in urban poverty that does not allow them to seek the care they need.”
On the Global Health Security Index, a report card that grades every country on its pandemic preparedness, the US has a score of 83.5 - the world’s highest. But during the recent outbreak it has fared much worse than countries with universal healthcare systems.
“This country is truly a failed state,” Mr Smit railed. “And it’s so sickening to witness firsthand, more blatantly than ever."
"When it comes to a crisis like this," he said, "We are all only as healthy as the person who does not have insurance."
I can understand if that person is in the at risk group, but how many are just going to take advantage like soooo many others.
