Americans are still struggling with financial losses from the pandemic, one year after the global emergency was declared. A new AP NORC poll found 40% of Americans are struggling financially directly as a result of the pandemic. One quarter of respondents reported being laid off from their jobs during the pandemic. Black and Latino workers and those without a college degree were the hardest impacted. The poll results are consistent with economic data reported by the government. There are still 18 million Americans actively seeking work who remain jobless. Meanwhile a new report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development projects that after the passage of President Biden’s COVID relief bill and given the vaccine rollout, the U.S. economy will grow twice as fast as expected. The COVID relief bill is expected to pass and be signed into law this week. Amid the many provisions is help for Black farmers who have lost 90% of their land over the past century. The American Rescue Plan includes $5 billion for farmers of color and is considered the, “most significant legislation for Black farmers since [the] Civil Rights Act.”  

Biden visited a small hardware store in the Washington area that finally received a government loan after the President signed an executive order changing eligibility to benefit “mom-and-pop” establishments. Store owner Mike Siegel explained to the President how his store weathered the pandemic. Mr. Biden on Monday released a statement marking International Women’s Day where he acknowledged that, “we are seeing decades of women’s economic gains erased by this pandemic,” and that, “COVID-19 is hitting the poorest and most marginalized women the hardest.” The White House announced that a large number of vulnerable Americans who qualify for the $1,400 checks in the COVID-relief bill will likely receive them before the end of the month. 

A Gallup poll has found a strong correlation between continued social distancing by Americans and a drop in COVID-19 infections. In fact, the percentage of Americans that are still sheltering in place is higher than at the peak of the crisis in late 2020. The national daily death toll has dropped to less than 1,000 for the first time in months. A new study of the virus in California in the early part of the pandemic found that many of those infected who were initially asymptomatic report having long-term health impacts.