January 21, 2021
One Year After Covid-19 Announced on U.S. Soil
On January 21, 2020, the United States reported its first case of Covid-19. In the year that has passed, misinformation has swirled about mask-wearing, cures, vaccines, and even whether or not the pandemic itself is a hoax. But with some 400,000 dead, today 1 in 3 Americans know someone who died from the virus and the impact of this slow-moving disaster is everywhere:
The nation has lost 8.5 million jobs and unemployment claims are 3 times higher than at the peak of the Great Recession.
Only 57% of adults are employed—a level lower than at the depth of the Great Recession. The Covid recession has been particularly hard on women who lost 156,000 jobs in December.
Small businesses have suffered, with nearly 1 out of 3 now closed.
29 states are projecting tax revenue decreases of 10% or more for fiscal year 2021, which will impact education, healthcare, disaster response, and more.
The constitutionally-mandated census has been thrown into disarray—leaving many southern and rural states at risk of being undercounted.
Teachers and students have been forced into unknown territory, and an estimated 3 million K-12 students are unable to continue learning amidst upended school situations.
The continued imbalance of Internet access, combined with the shift to digital solutions in response to the pandemic prevents many from accessing school, work, doctors, and knowledge about the virus. 1 in 6 Black households and nearly 1 in 4 American Indian/Alaska Native households lack internet access.
Health insurance is disproportionately lacking for Hispanic/Latinx and American Indian/Alaska Native adults, with 1 in 4 lacking coverage even before the pandemic.
For every 2 Covid deaths, 1 additional death has occurred in the U.S. compared to the average across the previous three years.
American Indian/Alaska Natives, Black, and Hispanic individuals were 1.5-2 times more likely to be hospitalized due to Covid in December. This gap was smaller than in May because Covid hospitalizations for whites surged to nearly triple their May rate.
The majority of adults in 7 states anticipate they will be evicted or foreclosed upon in the next two months.
Anxiety levels, now quadruple what they were before Covid, are even more severe for low-income families that are struggling with compounding crises.
Magnifying the misery of the pandemic, 2020 brought an unprecedented 22 billion-dollar weather and climate disasters to the U.S., including 7 hurricanes, a derecho scouring the Midwest with hurricane-force winds, and record-breaking wildfires across the West.
This pandemic year has also seen a surge in civic engagement. Record-breaking numbers of people voted in the 2020 election—nearly 160 million up from 139 million in 2016. And more than 20,000 protests have taken place across the country, 96% of them peaceful.
The incoming Biden-Harris administration and other newly elected leaders around the country will inherit the largest economic, health and governmental crisis in nearly a century. History has shown that crises accelerate pre-existing trends and permanently change societies and civic life. With the promise of widespread vaccinations in sight, the next months and years will be defined by the recovery – and an equitable recovery requires data.
As we head into the second year of the Covid crisis, Pandemic to Prosperity will continue to track changes to these and other indicators to measure progress as the nation endeavors to simultaneously manage the resulting health and economic crises, navigate entrenched racial inequities and the now-tangible impacts of climate change, and ultimately build the foundation for a more inclusive and sustainable future.