Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
There Is No Good Choice For Leaders When Potential To Save Lives Comes With Devastating Side-Effect Of Wrecked Economy
The Associated Press: A Cruel Paradox: Beating Virus Means Causing US Recession
No one knows how long it will last or how much it will hurt. But the U.S. economy is either sliding into a recession for the first time since 2009 or is already in one — a sudden victim of the coronavirus outbreak. The vast changes deemed necessary to defeat the virus — people and companies no longer engaging with each other — are bringing everyday business to a halt and likely delivering a death blow to the longest economic expansion on record. (Wiseman, 3/18)
Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus Poses Dreadful Choice For Global Leaders: Wreck Your Economy Or Lose Millions Of Lives
The coronavirus pandemic has confronted governments around the globe with the ultimate bad choice: Wreck your economy or lose millions of lives. While some initially hesitated, leaders and legislators in the United States and worldwide increasingly have decided they have to accept the severe economic pain. “Everything else will come back,” President Trump said Tuesday even as the economic downturn and global turmoil deepened. “Lives won’t come back.” (Lauter, 3/18)
Politico: Coronavirus Layoffs Surge Across America, Overwhelming Unemployment Offices
Employers are slashing jobs at a furious pace across the nation due to mass shutdowns over the coronavirus, slamming state unemployment offices with a crush of filers facing sudden crises. Long before official government data is expected to reveal the depths of the economic shock inflicted by the coronavirus, reports from state officials and businesses around the country indicate the gathering of a massive wave of unemployment on a scale unseen since the Great Recession. (Rainey, 3/17)
The New York Times: Layoffs Are Just Starting, And The Forecasts Are Bleak
However events unfold, one thing is becoming clear: As the effects of the coronavirus pandemic hit the job market, the damage looks likely to be much deeper and longer lasting than seemed possible even a week ago. Marriott International, the hotel operator, said Tuesday that it would begin furloughing tens of thousands of employees worldwide. Restaurants, coffee shops, gyms and other small businesses have begun laying off workers outright. On Monday, a flood of inquiries from newly jobless New Yorkers crashed the website for the state’s unemployment insurance system. (Casselman, Maheshwari and Yaffe-Bellany, 3/17)
ABC News: Small Business Owners Tapping Into Personal Savings, 401(K)S And More Amid Coronavirus Crisis
Luis Rivera and his family have run their neighborhood rotisserie chicken joint in downtown New York City for nearly five decades, staying open through everything from 9/11 to Superstorm Sandy, but he said he's never seen anything like the coronavirus pandemic. Rivera is among a handful of small business owners -- many of whom already operate on razor-thin margins -- who say they are entering times of unprecedented uncertainty. Despite pledges from the government and private sector, many say they still don't know how they will possibly pull through. (Thorbecke, 3/18)
The New York Times: Pandemic Erodes Gig Economy Work
It was just after 11 a.m. last Wednesday when Jaime Maldonado, 51, pulled his rented Nissan into a parking lot outside San Francisco International Airport. He figured he had a long wait ahead of him — about two hours — before Lyft would ping him to pick up a passenger. Occasionally, jets roared overhead — but not many, which meant not enough passengers for Mr. Maldonado, who said that before the coronavirus outbreak, he spent just 20 to 40 minutes waiting outside the airport before getting a customer. (Conger, Satariano and Isaac, 3/18)
The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Sends Travel Business And Millions It Employs Into All-Out Crisis
The coronavirus pandemic is devastating global travel, causing business to evaporate and forcing companies to slash payroll in what’s shaping up to be the biggest test the modern travel industry has ever faced. Longer term, the crisis could permanently reshape attitudes toward travel, fundamentally changing the landscape for hotels, airlines and cruise companies, and the millions of smaller businesses that make up the industry. (Karmin, Sayre and Paris, 3/17)
The Wall Street Journal: Marriott Begins Furloughing Tens Of Thousands Of Employees
Marriott International Inc., MAR -12.94% the world’s largest hotel company with nearly 1.4 million rooms world-wide, said it is starting to furlough what it expects will be tens of thousands of employees as it ramps up hotel closings across the globe. The company began shutting down some of its managed properties last week, a Marriott spokeswoman said. (Karmin, 3/17)
The Wall Street Journal: UAW, Auto Makers Agree To Partial Plant Shutdowns To Curtail Coronavirus
The United Auto Workers and Detroit car companies reached agreements on coronavirus-mitigation efforts that for now will avoid a two-week shutdown of U.S. factories. The UAW had been pressing General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV to idle their plants to protect workers from the virus. The union said late Tuesday that company executives had agreed to partial shutdowns of plants to allow for cleaning between shifts and longer periods for shift changeovers, along with other measures to minimize worker contact. (Colias and Foldy, 3/17)
NBC News: Coronavirus Starts To Take A Major Toll On Automakers, With Thousands Of Jobs At Risk
Most white-collar auto industry employees by Fiat Chrysler, Ford and General Motors are working from home this week, but Detroit’s Big 3 have formed a task force with the United Auto Workers Union to see if there’s a way also to protect hourly workers from the coronavirus without shutting down their U.S. parts and assembly lines. With schools closed, major sports leagues suspending their seasons, large gatherings being canceled and the travel industry in freefall, automotive analysts are downgrading their 2020 sales forecasts. (Eisenstein, 3/17)
The Hill: Major Automakers To 'Review And Implement' Rotating Partial Shutdown, Union Says
Three of America’s largest automakers have agreed to institute a rotating partial shutdown of production facilities amid the coronavirus outbreak, the United Auto Workers (UAW) union said. The union announced it had reached a deal with General Motors, Ford Motor and Fiat Chrysler for the companies to “review and implement” a rotating partial shutdown of facilities, deep cleaning of facilities and other measures to prevent the spread of the virus among workers. (Axelrod, 3/17)
The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Spending On Ride-Hailing With Uber, Lyft Falls As Coronavirus Spreads
Nationwide spending on ride-hailing services Uber Technologies Inc. UBER -6.80% and Lyft Inc. LYFT -2.41% plunged in the U.S. in the past two weeks as large numbers of Americans started working from home, avoided travel, and curtailed social gatherings in an effort to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. U.S. consumers spent 21% less on Uber rides in the seven days through March 16 compared with the seven days prior, according to data from market research-firm Edison Trends. It based its analysis partly on credit and debit card transactions. Spending on Lyft rides declined 19% over the same period, the data showed. (Rana, 3/18)
The Wall Street Journal: The (Mostly) Unintended Consequences Of Airline Bailouts
Even in a crisis that could dwarf 9-11, airline bailouts are a bitter pill for taxpayers to swallow. But they are also depressing for financially robust carriers dreaming of a more profitable European market. On Tuesday, the International Air Transport Association said global airlines would need $200 billion to avoid mass bankruptcies, as countries close their borders to international travelers due to the Covid-19 pandemic. (Sindreu, 3/18)
The New York Times: They Clean The Buildings Workers Are Fleeing. But Who’s Protecting Them?
The rumor unsettled Deborah Santamaria. A fellow janitor at 555 California Street, a 52-story office tower in San Francisco’s financial district, told her he heard that a floor of the building was being closed because a worker had contracted the novel coronavirus. At 63, Ms. Santamaria counted herself among those most vulnerable to a virus that had killed thousands worldwide and was rapidly spreading across the United States. (Eligon and Bowles, 3/18)
The Wall Street Journal: State Unemployment Sites See Surge In Jobless Claims
Several state unemployment-benefits sites are malfunctioning amid a rise in claims from Americans who are out of work because of the novel coronavirus. New York, Oregon and Kentucky are among the states whose websites to register for unemployment benefits have experienced problems this week tied to unusually high traffic. Kentucky normally processes 2,000 jobless claims a week but received more than 9,000 claims on Tuesday alone. (Chaney and Omeokwe, 3/17)
DCist: Coronavirus Is Causing Industry-Wide Layoffs In D.C., Hitting Service Workers Particularly Hard
Sweeping rounds of layoffs have started to hit D.C.-area businesses in a wide range of sectors. The economic plunge has been widely felt, hitting the wedding industry, food and hospitality services, arts organizations, wellness companies, and many others. (Williams and Lefrak, 3/17)
