Even before the pandemic, millions of Americans were on the knife’s edge. Seventy-eight percent of U.S. workers were living paycheck to paycheck as of 2017, according to a CareerBuilder survey—a figure that, shockingly enough, even included one in 10 people making a six-figure salary.
Then came COVID-19, and with it, the United States’ worst economic calamity since the Great Depression. The U.S. unemployment rate hit a staggering 14.7% in April as businesses closed and stay-at-home orders went into effect. While matters have improved somewhat since then, 13.6 million Americans are still out of work, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
By August, as many as 40 million Americans, unable to pay their bills, found themselves at risk of eviction. A homelessness crisis felt inevitable—until, suddenly, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a sweeping moratorium against evictions on Sept. 1, lasting through the end of the year. It surprised me and many others that the CDC—which doesn’t usually have housing on its agenda—even had this power. But in issuing the rule, the agency cited the very real public health threat presented by millions of people forced onto the streets or into shelters during a pandemic.
While many at-risk families and advocates welcomed the CDC move, it has at least one major flaw: there’s no money behind it, so it’s really just kicking the can down the road. Families currently protected by the rule will likely still be expected to pay their rent at some point—so they’re probably building a downright frightening amount of rent debt, as my colleague Alejandro de la Garza reports.
“...Struggling families are likely to fall farther behind as back rent piles up,” he writes. “As of Sept. 13, nearly 14% of U.S. households failed to make that month’s rent payment—more than a quarter million more than had not paid as of the same date last year, according to the National Multifamily Housing Council.”
Furthermore, the moratorium has done little to lift the mental health burden of living under constant threat of eviction for months on end. “I try my best to be positive, but it’s hard to maintain it because at some point you think, ‘How am I going to make it?,’” Marlenis Zambran, a 48-year-old mother struggling to make ends meet, told Alejandro. Housing insecurity is especially harmful for children, leading to slower educational and professional development for the rest of their lives, studies show.
There are solutions here. In the short term, Congress can and should pass some form of rent assistance for struggling families, whether that’s direct stimulus, tax relief or some other clever idea. But the pandemic has also revealed a longer-term structural issue: an alarming lack of affordable housing across the country. “The problem was so big before COVID, and now it’s that much bigger,” Mel Jones, a research scientist at the Virginia Center for Housing Research, told Alejandro. But ensuring that every American has a decent roof over their heads shouldn’t be too much to ask—in fact, it’s the bare minimum a decent society should provide.
More than 30.9 million people around the world had been sickened by COVID-19 as of 1 a.m. E.T. today, and more than 959,000 people have died.
On Sept. 20, there were 156,539 new cases and 2,569 new deaths confirmed globally. Here's how the world as a whole is currently trending:
Here is every country with over 350,000 confirmed cases to date ("per cap" is number per 100,000 people):
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson may enact a new two-week “mini” lockdown to battle an alarming new spike in cases across the country, the BBC reports. Officials there have already instituted a new £10,000 fine for people who break self-isolation rules. "If everybody follows the rules then we can avoid further national lockdown," Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the BBC over the weekend. While the U.K. appeared to get the pandemic under control over the summer, about 3,500 new cases have been reported each day in recent weeks.
Leaders in Madrid have requested the Spanish army’s help in enforcing new stay-at-home orders enacted amid a spike in cases, Reuters reports. “We need help from the army for disinfection...and to strengthen local police and law enforcement,” said Madrid regional chief Isabel Diaz Ayuso in a news briefing today. Madrid’s infection rate is three times the Spanish national average, per the Associated Press—but some in the area say the new rules unfairly target poor residents, leading to recent protests. The virus has killed more than 30,000 people across Spain so far.
It’s not all bad news out there: New Zealand, which has done a remarkable job in containing and controlling its outbreak, is lifting all outstanding restrictions except in Auckland, the AP reports. “Whilst we have reasonable confidence we are on the right track, there is still a need in Auckland for that cautious approach,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told reporters today; Auckland recently locked down to squash a small but alarming spike. According to the AP, there are now only 62 active cases across New Zealand, which is home to nearly 5 million people.
The Situation in the U.S.
The U.S. had recorded more than 6.8 million coronavirus cases as of 1 a.m. E.T. today. Nearly 200,000 people have died. Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
On Sept. 20, there were 38,978 new cases and 230 new deaths confirmed in the U.S. Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending:
Language acknowledging that the virus that causes COVID-19 is airborne was mysteriously deleted from the CDC’s website todays shortly after appearing. The site had added a note saying that the virus primarily spreads via tiny droplets “produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes, sings, talks, or breathes,” and that those droplets “can remain suspended in the air and be breathed in by others, and travel distances beyond six feet.” It also included a recommendation to avoid poorly ventilated indoor spaces. The CDC’s site now says the deleted language was “posted in error” and was merely a “draft version of proposed changes.” However, epidemiologists and other experts have long argued that the virus indeed spreads through the air, and have criticized health agencies like the CDC for being slow to accept that reality. Furthermore, the deletion comes amid reports that Trump Administration appointees have been altering CDC documents to play down the pandemic.
Speaking of experts: Many epidemiologists and others have been warning that the virus could make a big comeback during the fall and winter, especially as schools reopen across the country and the weather cools in northern states. Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, says there are early signs that’s already happening. "If you look at what's happening around the country right now, there's an unmistakable spike in new infections,” he told CBS’ Face the Nation yesterday. “I'm deeply concerned that as we head into the fall and the winter, this is the season when a respiratory pathogen like coronavirus wants to spread.”
Bill Gates said on Fox News Sunday yesterday that, while he’s optimistic the pandemic won’t last forever, the “best case” scenario for the “end of the epidemic” is “probably 2022.” “But during 2021, the numbers, we should be able to drive them down, if we take the global approach,” Gates added, referencing his belief that the world needs better international cooperation to deal with the virus.
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of September 21, 1 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
What Will the Fall and Winter Look Like?
As summer draws to a close in the Northeast, I’ve been feeling a creeping sense of dread about what winter may bring. While it feels like we’ve largely contained COVID-19 here, a resurgence is still possible—especially as the temperature dips and people flock indoors. So I found this piece by the New York Times’ Jeneen Interlandi, which lays out what the next few months could look like, helpful—if only as a theoretical sketch of one potential future. Read more here.
College Newspaper Reporters Shine in the Pandemic
Forgive me for a brief moment of self-indulgent media navel-gazing, but as a former college media nerd (who turned into a regular media nerd), I enjoyed this Washington Post story about the student reporters who, in the absence of healthy local news outlets, have turned into vital resources for the communities beyond their campuses amid the pandemic. Read more here.
What Does Justice Ginsberg’s Death Mean for the Affordable Care Act?
The Affordable Care Act—also known as Obamacare—has proved vital for many during the pandemic, helping to protect people who lost their jobs during the outbreak from total financial oblivion due to medical costs. But with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s death, conservative efforts to dismantle the ACA may have found new teeth, NPR reports. Read more here.
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com.
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Today's newsletter was written by Alex Fitzpatrick and edited by Elijah Wolfson.
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