theatlantic--2020-05-05--Masks Are a Tool, Not a Symbol

Masks Are a Tool, Not a Symbol

That night on her television program , she highlighted Donald Trump , public-health leaders , and others touting masks .
She welcomed a doctor who had founded an organization called Masks for All for a friendly interview about the utility of wearing masks in public and how to make one ’ s own .
Near the end of the segment , another DIY video featured the mother of one of her producers making a mask .
She did not object to the doctor ’ s advice to wear masks even after lockdowns end .
As late as April 13 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tools .
Then last week , Vice President Mike Pence visited the Mayo Clinic without a mask , despite the fact that all visitors are required to wear one .
CNN pundits and comedians such as Jimmy Kimmel scolded him .
Ingraham ’ s audience suddenly got a very different message on masks , which were recast as a tool to achieve “ social control over large populations ” through “ fear and intimidation.
” Now , Rush Limbaugh made a great point , as he always does , on the radio the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ itself , as it weakens and states start reopening—the media that has been selling this panic for weeks and weeks and weeks , they have fewer images to sell their hysteria to justify a continued lockdown .
But the masks ?
Well , they ’ re kind of a constant reminder .
You see the masks and you think , You ’ re not safe .
You are not back to normal , not even close .
For weeks , Ingraham treated masks as common sense .
But when CNN and others began @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ingraham started to cast them as a cynical ploy in a nefarious plot to stoke hysteria and repress freedom .
In truth , most members of the media , like most members of the public , would like nothing more than to find that the coronavirus is no longer a threat , that lockdowns can safely end , and that masks can be relegated to dark pandemic memories .
But even if it were true that liberal elites were touting masks only to ding Pence , or to needlessly extend lockdowns , those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spread of disease .
Masks will or won ’ t reduce deaths independent of the intent of CNN personalities .
But “ instead of getting their hands dirty with data , statistics , modeling , or wrestling with the difficult trade-offs involved in responding to dual epidemiological and economic crises , ” the writer Damon Linker says of Fox News and talk-radio-type intellectuals during this pandemic , “ they prefer to tell ideologically satisfying stories that shoehorn the behavior of people , classes , politicians , and dreaded ‘ elites ’ into pre-existing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coverage of masks in particular is driven to an astonishing degree by their hatred of center-left media outlets .
This impulse to align thoughtlessly against elites fuels capricious , irrational guidance to rank-and-file populists .
Those who are most easily influenced could suffer and spread harm as they reject masks entirely because they associate them with the other side in the culture war .

As America reopens, public sentiment about masks will shape what role they play in the country’s pandemic response. Policy makers, business owners, and unions must decide where masks should be recommended or mandatory. Individuals must decide how scrupulously to heed mask rules, as well as whether to wear masks when doing so is optional or even discouraged.
Getting mask use exactly right may be impossible. We lack full information about the efficacy of masks in many settings, and different people have different value judgments about mask mandates.
Still, the evidence is now quite robust that masks are effective in at least some settings. If Americans simply studied the evidence and behaved accordingly, erring on the side of caution, many lives could be saved––which makes it frustrating that hugely influential broadcasters who reach millions of Americans are turning masks into yet one more front in the culture war, telling their audiences that elites favor the use of face coverings to take away the freedom of the masses.
Read: The real reason to wear a mask
Fox News’ Laura Ingraham is perhaps the worst offender, in part because she clearly understands the value of mask-wearing in public. In late March, some public-health officials that had cautioned against wearing masks suddenly reversed themselves, and media outlets followed suit. Back then, the Fox News host was an enthusiastic proponent of face coverings. On March 22, she tweeted a compliment of a DIY face mask. “Going back to most jobs after 15 days will require new protocols until this virus burns out,” she tweeted on March 23. “Everyone within 6 feet of others MUST wear masks, constant hand washing, gloves, protective goggles if needed.” On April 3, she alluded to previous top-down cautions against wearing face masks while criticizing “experts.”
That night on her television program, she highlighted Donald Trump, public-health leaders, and others touting masks. She welcomed a doctor who had founded an organization called Masks for All for a friendly interview about the utility of wearing masks in public and how to make one’s own. Near the end of the segment, another DIY video featured the mother of one of her producers making a mask. She did not object to the doctor’s advice to wear masks even after lockdowns end. As late as April 13, she treated masks and gloves as commonsense tools.
Then last week, Vice President Mike Pence visited the Mayo Clinic without a mask, despite the fact that all visitors are required to wear one. CNN pundits and comedians such as Jimmy Kimmel scolded him. Ingraham’s audience suddenly got a very different message on masks, which were recast as a tool to achieve “social control over large populations” through “fear and intimidation.”
Ingraham continued:
Now, Rush Limbaugh made a great point, as he always does, on the radio the other day. He said the virus itself, as it weakens and states start reopening—the media that has been selling this panic for weeks and weeks and weeks, they have fewer images to sell their hysteria to justify a continued lockdown. But the masks? Well, they’re kind of a constant reminder. You see the masks and you think, You’re not safe. You are not back to normal, not even close.
For weeks, Ingraham treated masks as common sense. But when CNN and others began to treat masks as common sense, Ingraham started to cast them as a cynical ploy in a nefarious plot to stoke hysteria and repress freedom. In truth, most members of the media, like most members of the public, would like nothing more than to find that the coronavirus is no longer a threat, that lockdowns can safely end, and that masks can be relegated to dark pandemic memories. But even if it were true that liberal elites were touting masks only to ding Pence, or to needlessly extend lockdowns, those motivations would tell us nothing about the spread of disease. Masks will or won’t reduce deaths independent of the intent of CNN personalities.
Read: The social-distancing culture war has begun
But “instead of getting their hands dirty with data, statistics, modeling, or wrestling with the difficult trade-offs involved in responding to dual epidemiological and economic crises,” the writer Damon Linker says of Fox News and talk-radio-type intellectuals during this pandemic, “they prefer to tell ideologically satisfying stories that shoehorn the behavior of people, classes, politicians, and dreaded ‘elites’ into pre-existing assumptions about the culture war.” Populist coverage of masks in particular is driven to an astonishing degree by their hatred of center-left media outlets. This impulse to align thoughtlessly against elites fuels capricious, irrational guidance to rank-and-file populists. Those who are most easily influenced could suffer and spread harm as they reject masks entirely because they associate them with the other side in the culture war.
Some of those harmed may be people I love. My grandparents and friends of my family watch Fox News and listen to talk radio regularly. They live in communities where the influence of these programs looms large. In Southern California last week, many protesters without masks congregated in large numbers to protest the closure of local beaches. As it happens, I believe that opening those beaches and other outdoor areas with social-distancing rules in place would be prudent. And if protesters were risking only themselves, I would not object. But dense, maskless protests could lead to infections among many who didn’t attend. If people want to protest, can’t they wear masks just in case, if only to err on the side of caution for their neighbors? Were they to decide based on the merits of the mask issue, rather than the culture-war premise that eschewing masks is a way to “own the libs,” marginally more would use face coverings.
An incident in Stillwater, Oklahoma, was even more alarming. Starting on May 1, a local ordinance required masks in some public places. According to City Manager Norman McNickle, some store employees were threatened with physical violence and others were “showered with verbal abuse” when they tried to enforce mask-wearing. He added that the mask skeptics were motivated in part by false rumors that police were checking motorists for masks and ticketing the maskless.
Said conservative writer Rod Dreher, “It’s hard to deny that many conservatives have reacted to Covid-19 more out of ideology than fact. That’s exactly what these Stillwater people have done: opposing wearing masks on ideological principle. It’s what Limbaugh is encouraging people to do.”
Read: Everyone thinks they’re right about masks
Fox News and talk radio could do better by their audiences without abandoning populist criticism. For excellent articles that arm readers to make sound judgments on face masks while critiquing elite failures, see the pandemic advice that the risk-communication experts Jody Lanard and Peter M. Sandman have published, their appendix on face-mask advice, and the psychiatrist Scott Alexander’s “Face Masks: Much More Than You Wanted to Know.” The problem comes when outlets that are mainstream in their own right are so oriented around media criticism that they fail to inform. Fox News and the Limbaugh program are not niche products. Many rely on them as a primary source of information. When they turn public-health tools into symbols, they hurt the country, and their loyal audiences most of all.


Alan Taylor

Alan Taylor is a senior editor at The Atlantic , where he oversees the Photo section .
• Mountaintop yoga in China , a sunrise over Glastonbury Tor , a sneaky gull in Denmark , a field of lavender in England , “ Rays of Victory ” in Russia , a concert for plants in Spain , a ski run in Australia , and much more • Recent images of some of the services and memorials in Brazil , Chile , Peru , Mexico , Honduras , El Salvador , and more • Photographers across Africa , the Middle East @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and many of its observers .
• A few glimpses of Iowa ’ s landscape , and some of the animals and people calling it home • Continued burials of coronavirus victims in Chile , dinosaur art in Shanghai , ongoing protests against police brutality and systemic racism worldwide , workout pods in California , a horse named Mr. Glitter Sparkles in England , and much more • A collection of images of some of the hundreds of bird species that call Turkey ’ s Lake Van basin home • Images from across @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as different countries slowly emerge from months of pandemic lockdown • Delaware : Images of the First State A few glimpses of Delaware ’ s landscape , and some of the animals and people that call it home • Rhythmic gymnastics on a British seashore , anti-racism protests across the United States , the funeral procession of George Floyd in Houston , a wildfire in California , idled elephants in Thailand , and much more • The photographer Tarso Sarraf recently traveled with health-care workers attending to the residents of small river communities @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Marajo Island .
• Photos from the past 48 hours of demonstrations around the world , where thousands of people marched to show solidarity with American protests over the killing of George Floyd • A few glimpses of Alabama ’ s landscape , and some of the animals and people calling it home • Swimming in Mallorca , mountain art in Switzerland , protests against racism and police brutality across the United States , a coronavirus recovery in Spain , fashion in Kenya , and much more • Photos of demonstrations in nearly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ day of a nationwide protest movement • With the passing of artist Christo , yesterday , at the age of 84 , a look back at some of the enormous installations created by Christo and his wife and partner Jeanne-Claude .
• Missouri : Images of the Show Me State A few glimpses of Missouri ’ s landscape , and some of the animals and people calling it home • Fire and Protests in the Twin Cities A third day of protests took place yesterday in Minneapolis and St. Paul , over the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ man who died in police custody in Minneapolis , after an officer kneeled on his neck and ignored his pleas that he couldn ’ t breathe .

Alan Taylor is a senior editor at The Atlantic, where he oversees the Photo section.
John Moore / Getty Brown Bears Fishing at Alaska’s Brooks Falls Recent images from Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve, where brown bears are feasting on salmon once again
Moses Slovatizki / AFP / Getty Lahaina, After the Fire Images of early recovery work in Lahaina, and the community of volunteers who are mobilizing to help those in need
Ben Thouard / AFP / Getty Photos of the Week: Foam Party, Pet Dryer, Hummingbird Care Mountain-bike racing in Scotland, flooding in Northern Europe, missile strikes in Ukraine, wildfire damage in Hawaii, a rubber-duck derby in Chicago, and much more
Matthew Thayer / The Maui News / AP Photos: Deadly Wildfires Sweep Across Maui Early images from the disaster in Lahaina, Hawaii
Efrem Lukatsky / AP 18 Months of War in Ukraine Images from recent weeks, showing a region reshaped by a year and a half of war
David Swanson / AFP / Getty Photos of the Week: Spider Boots, Jacuzzi Bear, Inflatable Gibbon Widespread flooding in China, a wildfire in the Mojave National Preserve, a water polo match in Japan, a trampoline championship in England, and much more
Borja Suarez / Reuters Views of the Sturgeon Supermoon Images of one this year’s closest full moons, seen from locations around the world
Matthew Williams-Ellis / Getty Photos: London’s Urban Foxes Recent images of foxes playing, scavenging, sleeping, and scampering around London
Adam Pretty / Getty Photos of the Week: Feathered Gorilla, Breaching Whale, Alphorn Festival The Fencing World Championships in Italy, a bomb-damaged cathedral in Ukraine, a performance at the Lollapalooza Paris Festival, the Women's World Cup in Australia, and much more
Spyros Bakalis / AFP / Getty Devastating Wildfires on the Greek Island of Rhodes Images of the fires burning across Rhodes, and those battling the blazes
Corinna Kern / Reuters Israelis Protest Against Law to Limit Supreme Court Powers Images from recent protests against plans to reduce judicial oversight of the government, in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem
Mike Blake / Reuters Photos: Remembering Tony Bennett A handful of images of some of Bennett’s duets and group performances over the years
Matias Delacroix / AP Photos of the Week: Water Festival, Death Valley, Jumping Devil Mountainside art in Switzerland, multiple wildfires in Europe and North America, a moon-bound rocket launch in India, a high-wheel bicycle race in Maryland, and much more
Clive Rose / Getty Scenes From the 2023 World Aquatics Championships Photos from several swimming and diving events in Fukuoka, Japan
Valerie Gache / AFP / Getty Photos: Wildfires Rage Outside Athens, Greece Thousands of people have been forced to flee settlements and seaside resorts as fire crews fight multiple blazes roaring across dry hillsides.
Kristinn Magnusson / AFP / Getty Photos of the Week: Fire Bull, Lava Flow, Ice Cave A shark-monitoring drone at a New York beach, a raging wildfire in Canada, a fossilized plesiosaur in New York City, historic flooding in Vermont, and much more
ESA / Webb; NASA / CSA; A. Martel A Year of Amazing Images From the James Webb Space Telescope A collection of recent out-of-this-world images of our universe
Alvaro Barrientos / AP The Running of the Bulls 2023 Pamplona’s annual Fiesta de San Fermín, including the famous running of the bulls, began in Spain last week.
Ruben Albarran / Anadolu Agency / Getty Photos of the Week: Royal Busts, Flying Scotsman, Loo Garden A tightrope walker above Barcelona, anti-drone-gun practice in Ukraine, a giant illuminated sphere in Las Vegas, a fire-breathing dragon-horse puppet in China, and much more


David Sims

David Sims is a staff writer at The Atlantic , where he covers culture .
• One of America ’ s Fiercest Media Critics Is Back With a Warning Jon Stewart on his new satirical film , Irresistible , and the simplistic narratives that fuel the U.S. political system • The screenwriters behind Spike Lee ’ s new film discuss the story ’ s unexpected evolution into a rare Vietnam War movie about black veterans .
• The King of Staten Island and the Pain of Moving On Judd Apatow ’ s latest movie goes light on laughs as it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ growing up .
• Spike Lee Has Made His Most Ambitious Film Yet Da 5 Bloods is a searing Vietnam War epic that speaks to this moment—and it ’ s on Netflix , so viewers can revisit it again and again .
• The King of Comedy Is Okay With Not Being Funny Judd Apatow on making a dramatic movie that feels fitting for the current moment : “ It ’ s about trauma , first responders , how families deal with loss.
” • Shirley Is an Unconventional Biopic About a Horror @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gives the writer Shirley Jackson the unsettling and incisive cinematic treatment she deserves .
• The 13 Best Movies About Why You Shouldn ’ t Trust the Government Hollywood has a rich tradition of paranoid thrillers and conspiratorial dramas that are outrageous but have a hint of truth to them .
• The Creepy , Clever Sci-Fi Thriller You Need to Watch The Vast of Night , now on Amazon Prime Video , is a sharp debut from a filmmaker you should pay attention to .
• 30 Movies That Are Unlike Anything @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , each unforgettable in its own way , are essential viewing .
• The Sitcom Dad Who Made Grouchiness Into an Art Form The actor Jerry Stiller , who died yesterday at age 92 , was unforgettable as the irascible Frank Costanza on Seinfeld .
• There ’ s something soothing about watching a comedian who has been telling the same jokes for decades .
• The dark side of big data is a fascinating subject for TV to tackle .
It just doesn ’ t make for a great antagonist .
• @ @ @ @ @ @ @ According to Barry Jenkins “ Right now , there are no movie theaters .
The screens are on our walls , in our pockets , on our monitors.
” • While Generation X mostly dismissed him as wooden and one-note , younger viewers better understand his nuances as a performer .
• The streaming service is thriving at a time when many industries , including theaters and movie studios , are frozen .
• 22 Movies About the End of the World to Watch Now These films aren ’ t all bleak—or obviously @ @ @ @ @ @ @ timeless insights into how humans respond in times of crisis .

David Sims is a staff writer at The Atlantic, where he covers culture.
He is also a co-host of the Blank Check podcast. Before joining The Atlantic in 2014, David worked at The A.V. Club as a critic and was a staff reporter on education and local politics at the New York City newspaper The Chief-Leader. At The Atlantic, he primarily covers film, as well as comedy, television, video games, and other pop culture.
Bluey Images / Disney In Praise of Bluey, the Most Grown-Up Television Show for Children The hit Australian cartoon doesn’t hesitate to explore complicated feelings in a way that kids can understand, and that their parents will appreciate.
Mario Tama / Getty Hollywood’s Huge Barbenheimer Fumble Not taking advantage of the success of Barbie and Oppenheimer would be a catastrophic mistake.
Universal Pictures Oppenheimer Is More Than a Creation Myth About the Atomic Bomb Christopher Nolan’s ambitious film explores the heated conversations and private anxieties that led to the unleashing of a terrible power.
Warner Bros What’s the Matter With Barbie? Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is a charming blockbuster adventure about the tribulations of simply existing as a woman in society.
Nicole Rivelli / Sony A PG-13 Horror Franchise With the Legs to Last The Insidious franchise keeps going, and going, and going
Paramount Pictures The Sincerity and Absurdity of Hollywood’s Best Action Franchise Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One is a worthy entry in a series that has managed to stay fresh for nearly 30 years.
Video by Joanne Imperio / The Atlantic. Sources: … Can Movie Fans Ever Have a Nice Thing? Turner Classic Movies is facing deep staffing cuts—and with them, concern over what its future programming will look like.
Disney It’s Hard to Be Mad at Indiana Jones The action franchise’s fifth installment doesn’t break new ground, but it treats its star with respect and gives viewers what they want.
Disney / Pixar Pixar’s Talking Blobs Are Becoming More and More Unsatisfying The fantastical world of Elemental masks a lack of imagination from the once-inventive studio.
Focus Features Asteroid City Is Wes Anderson at His Best The film makes the case that art can convey feelings that even its creators don’t understand.
Al Levine / NBC Universal / Getty Long Live the Delightfully Dumb Comedy Conan O’Brien reminds us that a very stupid premise can make for the most hilarious movie.
DC The Flash Was on Life Support—Then the Muschietti Siblings Stepped In According to Barbara Muschietti, there’s one big reason she and her brother, Andy, have tackled some of Hollywood’s most troubled productions: “We’re incredibly stubborn.”
Sony Pictures A Spidey Sense We Haven’t Seen Before In Across the Spider-Verse, even more thrilling than the dazzling visuals is the hero’s bold psychological journey.
Disney The Naturalistic Horror of The Little Mermaid The film features a talking, orchestra-conducting crab—it doesn’t need to look like a wildlife documentary.
Jeong Park / A24 You Hurt My Feelings Is a Hilarious Anxiety Spiral The film traces a betrayal that’s trivial, comical, and also completely devastating.
Apple TV+ Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon Is a Triumph The highly anticipated adaptation of David Grann’s book is extraordinary filmmaking—and a big win for Apple TV+.
Magnolia Pictures The Provocative Optimism of Master Gardener The film, which takes on neo-Nazism and white supremacy, is Paul Schrader’s most challenging work yet. It’s also his most hopeful.
Universal Fast & Furious and Pretty Stale The franchise’s formula—merciless villain and world-threatening chaos, plus cars—just isn’t landing like it used to.
Courtesy of Elevation Pictures BlackBerry Is a New Kind of Business Biopic Even more enthralling than the story of a successful company is the story of one that crashed and burned.


theatlantic--2020-04-10--The Pandemic Will Cleave America in Two

The Pandemic Will Cleave America in Two

Viruses aren ’ t picky .
They tear through neighborhoods and nations , infecting whomever they can , and the new coronavirus is no exception : The pain of the present pandemic will be felt—is already being felt—by just about everyone in the United States and all over the world , in one way or another .
After the pandemic has run its course , no one will be wholly untouched .
To hear more feature stories , get the Audm iPhone app .
At the same time , there will be stark disparities in how certain segments of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of these disparities will be the result of luck or coincidence—a matter of where someone happened to travel , what line of work they chose , or what city they live in .
But in a country that was highly unequal in so many ways well before it had a confirmed case of COVID-19 , other disparities will be sadly predictable , falling along racial and class lines , as well as other fateful divides .
In the coming months and years , there will really be two pandemics in America .
One @ @ @ @ @ @ @ victims , but thanks to their existing advantages and lucky near misses with the virus , they will likely emerge from it relatively stable—physically , psychologically , and financially .
The other pandemic , though , will devastate those who survive it , leaving lasting scars and altering life courses .
Which of these two pandemics any given American will experience will be determined by a morbid mix of a sort of demographic predestination—shaped strongly by inequality—and purely random chance .
When someone dies , there are three ways to think about what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a professor at Case Western Reserve University ’ s School of Medicine .
The first is the straightforward , “ medical ” cause of death—diagnosable things like heart disease or cancer .
The second is the “ actual ” cause of death—that is , the habits and behaviors that over time contributed to the medical cause of death , such as smoking cigarettes or being physically inactive .
The third is what Frank refers to as the “ actual actual ” cause of death—the bigger , society-wide forces that shaped those habits @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deaths in the U.S. resulting from “ social factors ” ( Frank ’ s “ actual actual ” causes ) , the top culprits were poverty , low levels of education , and racial segregation .
“ Each of these has been demonstrated to have independent effects on chronic-disease mortality and morbidity , ” Frank said .
( Morbidity refers to whether someone has a certain disease . )
He expects that the same patterns will hold for COVID-19 .
Read : The four timelines for life returning to normal To begin with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ far worse for some people than others .
There are two traits that seem to matter most .
The first is age .
Older people are at greater risk of experiencing the more devastating version of the pandemic , in part because the immune system weakens with age .
Early data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that , in the U.S. , the risk of dying from the disease begins to climb at around age 55 , and is especially acute for those 85 and older .
“ I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to see clearly is an age-related pattern ” of mortality , Andrew Noymer , a public-health professor at UC Irvine , said .
( Younger people aren ’ t invulnerable to the disease , though ; the CDC found in mid-March that 20-to-54-year-olds had accounted for almost 40 percent of hospitalizations known to have been caused by the disease . )
• How the Pandemic Will End • Red and Blue America Aren ’ t Experiencing the Same Pandemic The second trait that puts someone at increased risk is having a serious health @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , or lung disease .
These conditions seem to make cases of COVID-19 more likely to be severe or fatal , and the risks rise considerably for older adults who have any of these conditions , Frank told me .
But while everyone ages , rich and poor alike , these health conditions are not evenly distributed throughout the population .
They ’ re more common among people with less education , less money , and less access to health care .
“ We know these social and economic conditions have a profound @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said , “ and then chronic disease has a profound effect on the mortality related to COVID.
” When we someday tally up all the casualties of the coronavirus , the high number of older Americans among the dead will reflect the sad , universal fact of physical decline .
But for many of those who had underlying health conditions , inequality will be the actual actual cause of death .
Since some minority groups have a higher prevalence of certain health conditions , like diabetes or high blood pressure , COVID-19 will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We may not see it now , but when we look back at who was the sickest , who had the most complications , where there were excess deaths , it ’ s likely that we might see those coming down along racial lines , ” Hedwig Lee , a sociologist at Washington University in St. Louis , told me in mid-March .
This pattern is already starting to emerge in early data from places that include information about race in their reports on the local impact of the virus .
In Chicago @ @ @ @ @ @ @ population is black , more than two-thirds of the 86 people killed by COVID-19 as of last weekend were black—and four in five of those black patients had high blood pressure and/or diabetes .
The state of Michigan and the Wisconsin county that contains Milwaukee have also had a disproportionate number of black residents die from the disease .
A similar pattern was borne out in a recent CDC cross-country snapshot of hospitalizations in parts of 14 states during the month of March ; black people accounted for 33 percent of hospitalizations for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ making up only 18 percent of the population in the areas surveyed .
Lower-income people , in addition to any other risk factors they may have , are also at increased risk because their finances might change the way they seek treatment for the disease if they come down with it .
When lower-income people get sick , “ they oftentimes delay going to the doctor , not because they don ’ t want to get well , but because they simply don ’ t have the money , ” Rashawn Ray , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said .
“ They wait until the last minute to go get help , like when they are literally about to die or when something catastrophic is happening.
” And forgoing a doctor ’ s guidance until the late stages of an illness—COVID-19 or not—could be especially dangerous during a pandemic .
Americans ’ health varies along racial and economic lines in the best of times .
That will probably make the outcomes just as uneven , if not more , in the worst of times .
Two important predictors of an American @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than whether that person has COVID-19 , are the answers they and others in their household would give to two questions : Are you still able to work ?
And if so , can you work without risking exposure to the virus ?
For a rapidly growing portion of the country , the answer to the first question is no .
Three weeks ago , some 3.3 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits in a single week , a record-breaking total that was nearly five times as large as the previous recorded high @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of new claims was twice as high—6.9 million .
Still another 6.6 million claims were filed last week , bringing the recent three-week total to nearly 17 million—an enormous figure that likely still understates how many Americans are actually out of work right now .
While few sectors of the economy have been spared by the pandemic , the businesses that have so far been hit particularly hard are the ones premised on physical presence and face-to-face interactions , such as retail stores , restaurants and bars , and hotels .
“ If @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have a lot of low-wage and part-time workers , ” many of whom live paycheck to paycheck , said Susan Houseman , the director of research for the nonprofit Upjohn Institute for Employment Research .
“ We worry about them in every single recession , and here they ’ re just being slammed.
” In this realm , too , racial minorities tend to be more vulnerable .
Houseman noted that African American and Hispanic workers are usually disproportionately likely to lose their job during downturns .
That was true during the Great @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be true of this economic crisis : According to the Pew Research Center , as of late March , 29 percent of white Americans said someone in their household was out of work or had received a pay cut because of the pandemic , while 36 percent of black Americans and 49 percent of Hispanic Americans said the same .
( Separately , a recent study also suggested that women may be more likely to lose their job than men . )
Of course , still having a job is not an unalloyed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s current workforce , earning a paycheck means exposing oneself to the virus .
There is a portion of the population , though , who are able to safely work without going outside and risking infection .
For them , this period is generally more bearable .
The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that less than 30 percent of American workers are able to do their jobs from home , and finds that this is much more likely to be the case for people who have at least a bachelor ’ s degree @ @ @ @ @ @ @ persist even once life starts returning to normal , if people who are able to work from home choose to continue to do so , out of caution .
But because of the nature of the pandemic , the danger of a job doesn ’ t map entirely neatly onto income and education levels .
Yes , it ’ s the case that many truck drivers , grocery-store workers , and delivery people are still out in the world and risking exposure to the virus , but so are doctors , nurses , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one happens to work is another point at which class and chance intersect .
During milder economic downturns , people who lose their job may be able to find work in another industry .
But because such a wide range of businesses have scaled back or shut down operations , job hopping is harder to pull off now , Houseman said .
It 's also riskier : Grocery stores and delivery companies are hiring ambitiously , but for jobs that will put workers in greater danger of viral exposure .
Read : Denmark @ @ @ @ @ @ @ avoid a Great Depression The answers to each of these two questions—whether someone still has a job , and whether they can do it safely—strongly predict how any given American household is faring right now .
To illustrate this , Rashawn Ray , the Brookings fellow , talked me through the probable realities of people who can do their job from home and people who are currently out of work .
The former group is likely to be salaried , and can limit their trips outside the house .
They may have children @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but , barring any health concerns , they ’ re doing fine .
“ Their job is safe , their salary and wages are safe , their mortgage and house is safe … and they ’ re able to go to the grocery store and load up on a whole bunch of groceries , ” Ray said .
Maybe they even choose to have the groceries delivered .
The latter group “ is living a completely different life right now , ” Ray told me .
Perhaps they were already living paycheck to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ve been laid off or furloughed , they ’ re not sure how they ’ ll be able to pay their usual expenses , let alone stock up on food and supplies .
“ A lot of people who don ’ t have money coming into the household are worried about losing their apartment or house , they ’ re worried about the fact that they can ’ t get access easily to the food they need , and now they ’ re sitting at home with families , with children , trying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” Ray said .
Andrew Noymer , the public-health professor , put it more concisely : “ Someone is at home wondering how he ’ s going to make rent and feed his family , ” he said .
“ And someone else is wondering if they can binge-watch the first season of The Sopranos or whatever.
” The uncertain duration of this period makes getting through it even more difficult .
“ I think that even a month of this could have devastating effects for many of our most vulnerable ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ assistant vice president in regional and community outreach at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston .
“ The longer it goes , the more concerned I am , and probably my concern grows exponentially , not linearly.
” Whenever it does end , Ray ’ s first group will likely have a relatively smooth transition back into the office : They ’ ll throw their laptops into their bags , drop their kids off at school or daycare , and resume whatever projects they were working on the previous day from home .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ t be able to get back to work so quickly .
Houseman likened the post-pandemic bout of rehiring to “ a game of musical chairs , ” because many businesses could go under between now and then .
“ Some will start hiring again , but there will be more workers for the jobs they have than they can hire , ” she said .
“ The longer [ closures ] persist , the more businesses are likely to go bankrupt , and the slower the recovery will be.
” One thing that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is having savings to draw on .
No amount of cash can grant someone immunity from the virus itself , but wealth can prevent the pandemic from leaving deep financial scars .
“ If you think about the possibility that people have to declare bankruptcy or foreclose on their house or lose their car , that takes a long time to recover from , ” said Vida Maralani , a sociologist at Cornell University who studies inequality .
“ If you have to use up all your wealth , that ’ s really @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the money [ I put down ] on a summer Airbnb and now I can ’ t vacation.
’ ” Life in America is always hard without cash reserves , but it ’ s especially hard now .
One 33-year-old woman in a small town in Texas told a New York Times reporter , “ I ’ m not going to let my kids go hungry .
If I have to just eat once a day , that ’ s what I have to do.
” She ’ s disabled and doesn ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a carpenter , has had fewer jobs lately .
Read : The best hopes for a coronavirus drug According to the Federal Reserve , just under 40 percent of American adults wouldn ’ t have enough cash on hand to cover an unexpected $ 400 expense , and that was before the pandemic cut off so many workers ’ earnings .
Having even a few thousand dollars saved up can make this time less stressful , Maralani said .
It can be the difference between being able to cover a couple months ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and wondering where the money for them will possibly come from .
The federal government is attempting to address household-budget shortfalls .
Late last month , Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed a $ 2.2 trillion economic relief package that included $ 300 billion to go directly to American households .
Most adults will get $ 1,200 each , plus $ 500 per child ( though they may not receive it until weeks or months from now ) .
Beth Mattingly , of the Boston Fed , told me she thinks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ help , ” though “ those who become unemployed or see their work hours reduced may still need more assistance.
” Even if Americans receive help from the government , Rashawn Ray foresees lasting financial consequences for people who aren ’ t able to pay their bills now .
“ If they are in a position where they have taken on a sizable amount of debt , [ maybe ] through payday loans , now they have added economic stressors that they ’ ll have to deal with , ” he said .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ allow people to delay their rent or mortgage payments , that doesn ’ t mean those people won ’ t have to make those payments eventually .
“ If this lasts 90 days , that ’ s three months of rent they have to make up , ” Ray said .
Read : How you should get food during the pandemic And in households across the country , regardless of wealth and income , COVID-19 will kill now-unknown numbers of people who support their families financially , Houseman noted .
Their deaths will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , who will also suffer economic consequences .
But in keeping with the often dystopian nature of American inequality , some households may , amid the tragedy , come out ahead .
“ I think there are also going to be some people who are saving money in this , ” Mattingly said .
“ Their income hasn ’ t changed , but they aren ’ t going out to eat , they ’ re not driving , they ’ re not going to work in the office.
” They may not emerge @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they will have a much easier time transitioning back to normal once the crisis wanes .
As health-care workers confront the coronavirus on the front lines of hospitals , the home front of this pandemic is literally the home .
That ’ s where many Americans are dutifully spending their days , and the conditions and location of one ’ s housing have significant bearing on how one weathers a pandemic .
Living in a cramped apartment with lots of relatives is risky on top of being uncomfortable ; sharing a spacious , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it safer and easier to ride out a lockdown .
In fact , some people may be thinking to themselves , as they hunker down with their work laptops , Netflix queues , and lack of social commitments , that pandemics aren ’ t so bad .
Those people likely don ’ t have serious health conditions or jobs that require them to leave home .
They probably also don ’ t have small children .
For parents with kids at home , “ you suddenly have a very different act to juggle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Maralani , the Cornell sociologist , said .
Many parents who are able to work from home , especially mothers , are stretched as they try to do their jobs while looking after their children all day .
Meanwhile , many parents who are struggling to make ends meet have those same child-care responsibilities on top of the stress of continuing to work outside of the house , out of necessity .
Read : The coronavirus is a disaster for feminism Kids themselves will experience the pains of the pandemic unevenly , as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weeks or months may widen existing educational disparities .
Many students from lower-income households simply aren ’ t logging on for their school ’ s online classes to begin with , sometimes because they don ’ t have a good internet connection at home .
Maralani speculates that children whose parents have more time and resources may receive more and better home instruction than their peers , which may produce short-term or possibly even long-term learning gaps .
Those are likely the same children who , even in the absence of their school @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , are still attending their violin lessons or karate classes over videochat .
The stress of managing a home can increase when older relatives are present .
According to the latest data from the Pew Research Center , 20 percent of Americans live in households with two or more adult generations or with grandparents and grandchildren ; Asian , Hispanic , and black Americans are more likely to live in multigenerational households than white ones .
This household arrangement is especially fraught in a pandemic , when every present body is another potential @ @ @ @ @ @ @ virus .
In February , a research team led by the World Health Organization estimated that transmission between people living in the same household was responsible for 78 to 85 percent of some 350 clusters of infections in two provinces in China .
This is concerning for larger households around the world , and additionally so when they include older relatives , who tend to be at higher risk .
Beyond the four walls ( or no walls ) of any particular living space , some neighborhoods will probably be more vulnerable to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of color , areas that are highly segregated in terms of race or income , are going to be the places where we would see , in all likelihood , clusters of illness , ” Scott Frank , the Case Western professor , said .
In neighborhoods like these , people may have larger households and smaller living spaces , and may not be able to afford to stay home , putting themselves at risk each day while continuing to work .
Frank ’ s grim prediction , made when I spoke with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ true .
According to recent data from health officials in New York City , several neighborhoods with the lowest median household incomes were among those with the highest number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 .
This is terrible for the residents of those neighborhoods , but it may also be bad for everyone : One study in Delhi , India , found that outbreaks of influenza in the poorest parts of the city propelled the spread of the disease more widely .
Moreover , the long-standing , intractable problems in many lower-income areas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t be put on hold during a pandemic .
“ A lot of communities are already dealing with things like being over-policed , police violence , excess pollution exposure , and unemployment , ” Hedwig Lee , the sociologist , said .
“ There are other [ things ] that have been impacting communities in a large-scale , wholesale way—some currently and some for many generations—and that makes this even scarier in terms of what it will look like once we get through this storm.
” Among these large-scale problems is the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
As of 2017 , something like 30 percent of American households didn ’ t have a broadband internet connection , and millions of people only connect to the internet through their phones , frequently with meager data plans .
“ With this particular pandemic , the guidelines are changing so quickly that immediate access to good information is absolutely required and absolutely at risk with access issues and not being online permanently , ” Mark Cameron , a medical professor at Case Western , said .
The fates of different places are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ orders matter a lot .
One telling example comes from autumn 1918 , when American cities responded to the flu pandemic with many of the same social-distancing measures that are now in place across the U.S. Infamously , Philadelphia hosted a patriotic wartime parade with some 200,000 attendees ( more than a tenth of the city ’ s population ) a week and a half after confirming its first case of influenza , and didn ’ t close down schools or forbid public gatherings until another five days after the event .
St. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gatherings and had flu patients isolate themselves just two days after detecting its first case .
During the four-month stretch of the pandemic at the end of the year , Philadelphians were , by one study ’ s accounting , roughly twice as likely as St. Louisans to die from it .
A separate 2007 study looking at 43 cities ’ pandemic-fighting strategies 100 years ago found that “ early , sustained , and layered application ” of measures such as social distancing and public-event bans was associated with reducing the impact of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ written in The Atlantic , many state governments ’ responses to the present crisis have differed along political lines , with liberal leaders generally taking swifter action than conservative ones .
At least partly as a result of local leaders ’ directives , there was a pronounced difference in how many Americans in different states stayed home in the month of March .
And that may go on to play a role in the toll the pandemic takes in different areas .
The many divides in American society that will shape people ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t exist in isolation .
Instead , they compound and overlap , increasing the risk that certain people will endure the more devastating of the two pandemics .
Some of that interplay may be a matter of bad luck .
Perhaps you ’ re more vulnerable to COVID-19 because you have asthma , and your partner happens to work at a hospital and might bring the virus back home .
But some of these patterns are not a product of chance .
People with less money are likelier to have chronic health conditions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ another , making residents of many lower-income neighborhoods doubly vulnerable .
In this way , American inequality produces clusters of disadvantage , not unlike a disease .
The coronavirus will be indiscriminate , harming some Americans unpredictably , regardless of race or class or any other category .
But at the same time , much of the harm it brings—far too much—will be predictable .

Some will emerge from this crisis disrupted and shaken, but ultimately stable. Others will come out of it with much more lasting scars.
Viruses aren’t picky. They tear through neighborhoods and nations, infecting whomever they can, and the new coronavirus is no exception: The pain of the present pandemic will be felt—is already being felt—by just about everyone in the United States and all over the world, in one way or another. After the pandemic has run its course, no one will be wholly untouched.
To hear more feature stories, get the Audm iPhone app.
At the same time, there will be stark disparities in how certain segments of the American population experience this crisis. Some of these disparities will be the result of luck or coincidence—a matter of where someone happened to travel, what line of work they chose, or what city they live in. But in a country that was highly unequal in so many ways well before it had a confirmed case of COVID-19, other disparities will be sadly predictable, falling along racial and class lines, as well as other fateful divides.
In the coming months and years, there will really be two pandemics in America. One will be disruptive and frightening to its victims, but thanks to their existing advantages and lucky near misses with the virus, they will likely emerge from it relatively stable—physically, psychologically, and financially. The other pandemic, though, will devastate those who survive it, leaving lasting scars and altering life courses.
Which of these two pandemics any given American will experience will be determined by a morbid mix of a sort of demographic predestination—shaped strongly by inequality—and purely random chance.
When someone dies, there are three ways to think about what caused it, according to Scott Frank, a professor at Case Western Reserve University’s School of Medicine. The first is the straightforward, “medical” cause of death—diagnosable things like heart disease or cancer. The second is the “actual” cause of death—that is, the habits and behaviors that over time contributed to the medical cause of death, such as smoking cigarettes or being physically inactive. The third is what Frank refers to as the “actual actual” cause of death—the bigger, society-wide forces that shaped those habits and behaviors.
In one analysis of deaths in the U.S. resulting from “social factors” (Frank’s “actual actual” causes), the top culprits were poverty, low levels of education, and racial segregation. “Each of these has been demonstrated to have independent effects on chronic-disease mortality and morbidity,” Frank said. (Morbidity refers to whether someone has a certain disease.) He expects that the same patterns will hold for COVID-19.
Read: The four timelines for life returning to normal
To begin with, the physical effects of COVID-19 are far worse for some people than others. There are two traits that seem to matter most.
The first is age. Older people are at greater risk of experiencing the more devastating version of the pandemic, in part because the immune system weakens with age. Early data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that, in the U.S., the risk of dying from the disease begins to climb at around age 55, and is especially acute for those 85 and older. “I think the pattern we’re going to see clearly is an age-related pattern” of mortality, Andrew Noymer, a public-health professor at UC Irvine, said. (Younger people aren’t invulnerable to the disease, though; the CDC found in mid-March that 20-to-54-year-olds had accounted for almost 40 percent of hospitalizations known to have been caused by the disease.)
The second trait that puts someone at increased risk is having a serious health condition such as diabetes, heart disease, or lung disease. These conditions seem to make cases of COVID-19 more likely to be severe or fatal, and the risks rise considerably for older adults who have any of these conditions, Frank told me.
But while everyone ages, rich and poor alike, these health conditions are not evenly distributed throughout the population. They’re more common among people with less education, less money, and less access to health care. “We know these social and economic conditions have a profound effect on chronic disease,” Frank said, “and then chronic disease has a profound effect on the mortality related to COVID.”
When we someday tally up all the casualties of the coronavirus, the high number of older Americans among the dead will reflect the sad, universal fact of physical decline. But for many of those who had underlying health conditions, inequality will be the actual actual cause of death.
Since some minority groups have a higher prevalence of certain health conditions, like diabetes or high blood pressure, COVID-19 will likely affect them more intensely. “We may not see it now, but when we look back at who was the sickest, who had the most complications, where there were excess deaths, it’s likely that we might see those coming down along racial lines,” Hedwig Lee, a sociologist at Washington University in St. Louis, told me in mid-March.
This pattern is already starting to emerge in early data from places that include information about race in their reports on the local impact of the virus. In Chicago, where less than one-third of the population is black, more than two-thirds of the 86 people killed by COVID-19 as of last weekend were black—and four in five of those black patients had high blood pressure and/or diabetes. The state of Michigan and the Wisconsin county that contains Milwaukee have also had a disproportionate number of black residents die from the disease. A similar pattern was borne out in a recent CDC cross-country snapshot of hospitalizations in parts of 14 states during the month of March; black people accounted for 33 percent of hospitalizations for which racial data was available, despite making up only 18 percent of the population in the areas surveyed.
Read: What the racial data show
Lower-income people, in addition to any other risk factors they may have, are also at increased risk because their finances might change the way they seek treatment for the disease if they come down with it. When lower-income people get sick, “they oftentimes delay going to the doctor, not because they don’t want to get well, but because they simply don’t have the money,” Rashawn Ray, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, said. “They wait until the last minute to go get help, like when they are literally about to die or when something catastrophic is happening.” And forgoing a doctor’s guidance until the late stages of an illness—COVID-19 or not—could be especially dangerous during a pandemic.
Americans’ health varies along racial and economic lines in the best of times. That will probably make the outcomes just as uneven, if not more, in the worst of times.
Two important predictors of an American’s well-being right now, other than whether that person has COVID-19, are the answers they and others in their household would give to two questions: Are you still able to work? And if so, can you work without risking exposure to the virus?
For a rapidly growing portion of the country, the answer to the first question is no. Three weeks ago, some 3.3 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits in a single week, a record-breaking total that was nearly five times as large as the previous recorded high. The following week, the number of new claims was twice as high—6.9 million. Still another 6.6 million claims were filed last week, bringing the recent three-week total to nearly 17 million—an enormous figure that likely still understates how many Americans are actually out of work right now.
While few sectors of the economy have been spared by the pandemic, the businesses that have so far been hit particularly hard are the ones premised on physical presence and face-to-face interactions, such as retail stores, restaurants and bars, and hotels. “If we think about those industries, they have a lot of low-wage and part-time workers,” many of whom live paycheck to paycheck, said Susan Houseman, the director of research for the nonprofit Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. “We worry about them in every single recession, and here they’re just being slammed.”
Read: America’s restaurants will need a miracle
In this realm, too, racial minorities tend to be more vulnerable. Houseman noted that African American and Hispanic workers are usually disproportionately likely to lose their job during downturns. That was true during the Great Recession, and so far appears to be true of this economic crisis: According to the Pew Research Center, as of late March, 29 percent of white Americans said someone in their household was out of work or had received a pay cut because of the pandemic, while 36 percent of black Americans and 49 percent of Hispanic Americans said the same. (Separately, a recent study also suggested that women may be more likely to lose their job than men.)
Of course, still having a job is not an unalloyed good; for much of America’s current workforce, earning a paycheck means exposing oneself to the virus. There is a portion of the population, though, who are able to safely work without going outside and risking infection. For them, this period is generally more bearable. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that less than 30 percent of American workers are able to do their jobs from home, and finds that this is much more likely to be the case for people who have at least a bachelor’s degree. Remote workers’ relative safety may persist even once life starts returning to normal, if people who are able to work from home choose to continue to do so, out of caution.
But because of the nature of the pandemic, the danger of a job doesn’t map entirely neatly onto income and education levels. Yes, it’s the case that many truck drivers, grocery-store workers, and delivery people are still out in the world and risking exposure to the virus, but so are doctors, nurses, and pharmacists. The industry in which one happens to work is another point at which class and chance intersect.
During milder economic downturns, people who lose their job may be able to find work in another industry. But because such a wide range of businesses have scaled back or shut down operations, job hopping is harder to pull off now, Houseman said. It's also riskier: Grocery stores and delivery companies are hiring ambitiously, but for jobs that will put workers in greater danger of viral exposure.
Read: Denmark’s idea could help the world avoid a Great Depression
The answers to each of these two questions—whether someone still has a job, and whether they can do it safely—strongly predict how any given American household is faring right now. To illustrate this, Rashawn Ray, the Brookings fellow, talked me through the probable realities of people who can do their job from home and people who are currently out of work.
The former group is likely to be salaried, and can limit their trips outside the house. They may have children to look after and stress over, but, barring any health concerns, they’re doing fine. “Their job is safe, their salary and wages are safe, their mortgage and house is safe … and they’re able to go to the grocery store and load up on a whole bunch of groceries,” Ray said. Maybe they even choose to have the groceries delivered.
The latter group “is living a completely different life right now,” Ray told me. Perhaps they were already living paycheck to paycheck, but now that they’ve been laid off or furloughed, they’re not sure how they’ll be able to pay their usual expenses, let alone stock up on food and supplies. “A lot of people who don’t have money coming into the household are worried about losing their apartment or house, they’re worried about the fact that they can’t get access easily to the food they need, and now they’re sitting at home with families, with children, trying to figure out what’s happening,” Ray said.
Andrew Noymer, the public-health professor, put it more concisely: “Someone is at home wondering how he’s going to make rent and feed his family,” he said. “And someone else is wondering if they can binge-watch the first season of The Sopranos or whatever.”
The uncertain duration of this period makes getting through it even more difficult. “I think that even a month of this could have devastating effects for many of our most vulnerable” people, said Beth Mattingly, an assistant vice president in regional and community outreach at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. “The longer it goes, the more concerned I am, and probably my concern grows exponentially, not linearly.”
Whenever it does end, Ray’s first group will likely have a relatively smooth transition back into the office: They’ll throw their laptops into their bags, drop their kids off at school or daycare, and resume whatever projects they were working on the previous day from home.
But the second group probably won’t be able to get back to work so quickly. Houseman likened the post-pandemic bout of rehiring to “a game of musical chairs,” because many businesses could go under between now and then. “Some will start hiring again, but there will be more workers for the jobs they have than they can hire,” she said. “The longer [closures] persist, the more businesses are likely to go bankrupt, and the slower the recovery will be.”
One thing that can provide a buffer from labor-market turbulence is having savings to draw on. No amount of cash can grant someone immunity from the virus itself, but wealth can prevent the pandemic from leaving deep financial scars. “If you think about the possibility that people have to declare bankruptcy or foreclose on their house or lose their car, that takes a long time to recover from,” said Vida Maralani, a sociologist at Cornell University who studies inequality. “If you have to use up all your wealth, that’s really different than ‘Gee, I lost the money [I put down] on a summer Airbnb and now I can’t vacation.’”
Life in America is always hard without cash reserves, but it’s especially hard now. One 33-year-old woman in a small town in Texas told a New York Times reporter, “I’m not going to let my kids go hungry. If I have to just eat once a day, that’s what I have to do.” She’s disabled and doesn’t work, and her husband, a carpenter, has had fewer jobs lately.
Read: The best hopes for a coronavirus drug
According to the Federal Reserve, just under 40 percent of American adults wouldn’t have enough cash on hand to cover an unexpected $400 expense, and that was before the pandemic cut off so many workers’ earnings. Having even a few thousand dollars saved up can make this time less stressful, Maralani said. It can be the difference between being able to cover a couple months’ expenses, like rent or car payments, and wondering where the money for them will possibly come from.
The federal government is attempting to address household-budget shortfalls. Late last month, Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed a $2.2 trillion economic relief package that included $300 billion to go directly to American households. Most adults will get $1,200 each, plus $500 per child (though they may not receive it until weeks or months from now). Beth Mattingly, of the Boston Fed, told me she thinks the relief package will “provide significant help,” though “those who become unemployed or see their work hours reduced may still need more assistance.”
Even if Americans receive help from the government, Rashawn Ray foresees lasting financial consequences for people who aren’t able to pay their bills now. “If they are in a position where they have taken on a sizable amount of debt, [maybe] through payday loans, now they have added economic stressors that they’ll have to deal with,” he said. Additionally, even if landlords or lenders allow people to delay their rent or mortgage payments, that doesn’t mean those people won’t have to make those payments eventually. “If this lasts 90 days, that’s three months of rent they have to make up,” Ray said.
Read: How you should get food during the pandemic
And in households across the country, regardless of wealth and income, COVID-19 will kill now-unknown numbers of people who support their families financially, Houseman noted. Their deaths will be painful personal losses for their families, who will also suffer economic consequences.
But in keeping with the often dystopian nature of American inequality, some households may, amid the tragedy, come out ahead. “I think there are also going to be some people who are saving money in this,” Mattingly said. “Their income hasn’t changed, but they aren’t going out to eat, they’re not driving, they’re not going to work in the office.” They may not emerge from the pandemic completely unscathed, but they will have a much easier time transitioning back to normal once the crisis wanes.
As health-care workers confront the coronavirus on the front lines of hospitals, the home front of this pandemic is literally the home. That’s where many Americans are dutifully spending their days, and the conditions and location of one’s housing have significant bearing on how one weathers a pandemic. Living in a cramped apartment with lots of relatives is risky on top of being uncomfortable; sharing a spacious, well-appointed house with few other people makes it safer and easier to ride out a lockdown.
In fact, some people may be thinking to themselves, as they hunker down with their work laptops, Netflix queues, and lack of social commitments, that pandemics aren’t so bad. Those people likely don’t have serious health conditions or jobs that require them to leave home. They probably also don’t have small children. For parents with kids at home, “you suddenly have a very different act to juggle than you had before,” Vida Maralani, the Cornell sociologist, said. Many parents who are able to work from home, especially mothers, are stretched as they try to do their jobs while looking after their children all day. Meanwhile, many parents who are struggling to make ends meet have those same child-care responsibilities on top of the stress of continuing to work outside of the house, out of necessity.
Read: The coronavirus is a disaster for feminism
Kids themselves will experience the pains of the pandemic unevenly, as keeping children out of school for several weeks or months may widen existing educational disparities. Many students from lower-income households simply aren’t logging on for their school’s online classes to begin with, sometimes because they don’t have a good internet connection at home. Maralani speculates that children whose parents have more time and resources may receive more and better home instruction than their peers, which may produce short-term or possibly even long-term learning gaps. Those are likely the same children who, even in the absence of their school’s usual art or music programs, are still attending their violin lessons or karate classes over videochat.
The stress of managing a home can increase when older relatives are present. According to the latest data from the Pew Research Center, 20 percent of Americans live in households with two or more adult generations or with grandparents and grandchildren; Asian, Hispanic, and black Americans are more likely to live in multigenerational households than white ones.
This household arrangement is especially fraught in a pandemic, when every present body is another potential distributor, or recipient, of the virus. In February, a research team led by the World Health Organization estimated that transmission between people living in the same household was responsible for 78 to 85 percent of some 350 clusters of infections in two provinces in China. This is concerning for larger households around the world, and additionally so when they include older relatives, who tend to be at higher risk.
American families, whether big or small, are riding out this pandemic with varying degrees of comfort. As my colleague Megan Garber recently noted, the unpleasantness of staying indoors is related to “how much room you have, how many rooms you have, whether you have a dishwasher or a washing machine or internet, whether you have an area in which to exercise or be alone or be together or cook or get fresh air.” The distinguishing features of a living space, Garber argued, take on magnified importance when its occupants are there more or less around the clock.
Read: It pays to be rich during a pandemic
The physical spaces where people are enduring lockdown capture the full range of American inequality. Some affluent urbanites, finding their primary residences dissatisfactory, have retreated to their vacation homes; at least one billionaire has been sheltering in place in the Caribbean on his yacht. Meanwhile, some people without a place to live recently gathered in a makeshift shelter in a parking lot in Las Vegas without walls or a roof; across the country, groups that provide support to people without a home are scaling back or shutting down their operations, for fear of spreading the disease. “I do worry about them,” Andrew Noymer said of homeless people, noting that the virus could spread quickly among those who live in close proximity to one another. Prisons and jails, too, seem to be tragically conducive to the spread of disease.
Beyond the four walls (or no walls) of any particular living space, some neighborhoods will probably be more vulnerable to the virus than others. “Communities of color, areas that are highly segregated in terms of race or income, are going to be the places where we would see, in all likelihood, clusters of illness,” Scott Frank, the Case Western professor, said. In neighborhoods like these, people may have larger households and smaller living spaces, and may not be able to afford to stay home, putting themselves at risk each day while continuing to work.
Frank’s grim prediction, made when I spoke with him in mid-March, is already coming true. According to recent data from health officials in New York City, several neighborhoods with the lowest median household incomes were among those with the highest number of confirmed cases of COVID-19. This is terrible for the residents of those neighborhoods, but it may also be bad for everyone: One study in Delhi, India, found that outbreaks of influenza in the poorest parts of the city propelled the spread of the disease more widely.
Moreover, the long-standing, intractable problems in many lower-income areas, whether urban or rural, won’t be put on hold during a pandemic. “A lot of communities are already dealing with things like being over-policed, police violence, excess pollution exposure, and unemployment,” Hedwig Lee, the sociologist, said. “There are other [things] that have been impacting communities in a large-scale, wholesale way—some currently and some for many generations—and that makes this even scarier in terms of what it will look like once we get through this storm.”
Read: America is acting like a failed state
Among these large-scale problems is the unevenness of internet access in some areas. As of 2017, something like 30 percent of American households didn’t have a broadband internet connection, and millions of people only connect to the internet through their phones, frequently with meager data plans. “With this particular pandemic, the guidelines are changing so quickly that immediate access to good information is absolutely required and absolutely at risk with access issues and not being online permanently,” Mark Cameron, a medical professor at Case Western, said.
The fates of different places are not predetermined, though—city- or statewide public-health orders matter a lot. One telling example comes from autumn 1918, when American cities responded to the flu pandemic with many of the same social-distancing measures that are now in place across the U.S. Infamously, Philadelphia hosted a patriotic wartime parade with some 200,000 attendees (more than a tenth of the city’s population) a week and a half after confirming its first case of influenza, and didn’t close down schools or forbid public gatherings until another five days after the event. St. Louis, meanwhile, canceled most public gatherings and had flu patients isolate themselves just two days after detecting its first case. During the four-month stretch of the pandemic at the end of the year, Philadelphians were, by one study’s accounting, roughly twice as likely as St. Louisans to die from it. A separate 2007 study looking at 43 cities’ pandemic-fighting strategies 100 years ago found that “early, sustained, and layered application” of measures such as social distancing and public-event bans was associated with reducing the impact of the outbreak.
As Ronald Brownstein has written in The Atlantic, many state governments’ responses to the present crisis have differed along political lines, with liberal leaders generally taking swifter action than conservative ones. At least partly as a result of local leaders’ directives, there was a pronounced difference in how many Americans in different states stayed home in the month of March. And that may go on to play a role in the toll the pandemic takes in different areas.
The many divides in American society that will shape people’s experience of the pandemic don’t exist in isolation. Instead, they compound and overlap, increasing the risk that certain people will endure the more devastating of the two pandemics.
Some of that interplay may be a matter of bad luck. Perhaps you’re more vulnerable to COVID-19 because you have asthma, and your partner happens to work at a hospital and might bring the virus back home. But some of these patterns are not a product of chance. People with less money are likelier to have chronic health conditions, and also to live near one another, making residents of many lower-income neighborhoods doubly vulnerable. In this way, American inequality produces clusters of disadvantage, not unlike a disease.
The coronavirus will be indiscriminate, harming some Americans unpredictably, regardless of race or class or any other category. But at the same time, much of the harm it brings—far too much—will be predictable.


Uri Friedman

He was previously the deputy managing editor at Foreign Policy .
• Why America Resists Learning From Other Countries The pandemic may pose the greatest threat yet to the belief that America has little to learn from the rest of the world .
• I Have Seen the Future—And It ’ s Not the Life We Knew Cities around the world might slowly be coming back to life , but there ’ s no going back to “ normal.
” • New Zealand ’ s Prime Minister May Be the Most Effective Leader on the Planet Jacinda Ardern ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ isn ’ t just resonating with her people ; it ’ s putting the country on track for success against the coronavirus .
• The nation ’ s top infectious-disease expert is hardly infallible .
But Trump allies may be criticizing him because they can ’ t target the president .
• We Can ’ t Rely on Just the Military It might seem like the Pentagon can act as some sort of savior in confronting the coronavirus , but that ’ s unlikely .
• The West has long stigmatized mask-wearing , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who don ’ t wear masks during public-health crises are the ones who are stigmatized .
• The Coronavirus-Denial Movement Now Has a Leader Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has lashed out against local officials who have implemented severe lockdowns , accusing them of destroying the country .
• Why America Is Uniquely Unsuited to Dealing With the Coronavirus For decades other countries were shaped by the traumas of disease outbreaks while the United States remained largely untouched .
No longer .
• When the inevitable inquiry into the government 's response to COVID-19 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of a coming crisis were everywhere .
• Hard-liners have long warned of the systemic risks posed by America ’ s global supply chains .
Now they ’ re pointing to the outbreak as definitive proof .
• The candidates ’ attempts at moral clarity got muddled when conversation turned to the trade-offs inherent in actually conducting American statecraft .
• The episodes in which critics ’ predictions weren ’ t borne out offer valuable lessons for Trump ’ s challengers , even if they still vigorously disagree with the moves the president @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Its Cold War With China If the Trump administration is truly going all-in on competition with Beijing , it ’ s not clear that Trump himself is fully on board .
Nor , it ’ s now clear , are several of America ’ s closest friends .
• Anyone can get hacked .
But when it happens to the rich and powerful , the stakes can be extraordinarily high .
• America Has Come Full Circle in the Middle East “ We are opening a Pandora ’ s Box , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ first U.S. combat mission in the region .
Little did he know how right he would be .
• A rescue team at the site where the ...
The Iran Plane Crash Is the Big Story The accidental shoot-down of the Ukrainian passenger jet is a glaring example of how the conflict between the U.S. and Iran can spiral out of control even when neither party wants it to .

Uri Friedman is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and the senior editorial director at the Atlantic Council.
He was previously a staff writer at The Atlantic covering national security and global affairs and a senior editor overseeing The Atlantic’s global coverage. Before that, he served as the deputy managing editor of Foreign Policy magazine and worked with Atlantic Media’s chair and owner on editorial and business strategy, helping launch The Atlantic Wire. Friedman’s reporting has focused on issues such as the North Korean nuclear challenge, U.S. relations with China, the evolving international system, the geopolitical consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, global democratic trends, and the intersection of American politics and U.S. foreign policy.
Illustration by The Atlantic; Source: Getty. Vladimir Putin and the Parable of the ‘Cornered Rat’ We may be getting the moral of the Russian leader’s childhood story all wrong.
Jerome Sessini / Magnum How and When the War in Ukraine Will End Forecasting a conclusion to an unpredictable conflict
Antonio Masiello / Getty; The Atlantic Will Putin Use Nuclear Weapons? Watch These Indicators. I asked several experts to share the indicators they’re tracking most closely to determine whether Russian nuclear use in Ukraine is imminent—and to help us all separate the signal from the noise.
Paul Spella / The Atlantic; Getty A Third Nuclear Age Is Upon Us North Korea’s moves to develop tactical nuclear weapons show that the slope toward a new era is steepening.
Getty; The Atlantic How the UN Security Council Can Reinvent Itself The most powerful body of the most global organization has proved unable to address the world’s most pressing problems.
The Atlantic What’s the Likelihood of Nuclear War? The Ukraine crisis isn’t as dangerous as the darkest moments of the Cold War, but the potential for mistakes and miscalculations means the risks are still high.
Mikhail Svetlov / Getty Putin’s Nuclear Threats Are a Wake-Up Call for the World The Russian leader’s actions have opened our eyes to how dependent we all are on the whims of one man and his nuclear arsenal.
The Atlantic The Seven Habits of COVID-Resilient Nations South Korea has repeatedly suppressed the spread of the virus and kept deaths to relatively low levels.
Ben Hickey The Dueling Ideas That Will Define the 21st Century Our paradigms mold our assumptions and expectations, and thus our policies and behavior.
Harold M. Lambert / Keystone / Getty ; … Germany Found a Way to Reduce Polarization. Could It Work in the U.S.? The country’s robust investment in public media has helped it reduce political divisions.
Chinatopix / AP The Lost Month That Haunts the World And points to how we prevent the next pandemic.
Mauro Pimentel / AFP / Getty COVID-19 Lays Bare the Price of Populism A raging outbreak in Brazil threatens gains against the virus.
Jim Lo Scalzo /Getty Don’t Erase What Happened at the Capitol The building should resemble the United States, a still-broken country in need of fixing.
Oded Balilty / AP One Country Has Jumped Ahead on Vaccinations Israel has vaccinated six times more of its population than the United States. Can others learn from its success?
Joe Raedle / Getty The Damage Will Last The precedents Trump has set, the doubts he has sown, and the claims he has made will linger.
Daniel Hernanz Ramos / Getty The Pandemic Is Revealing a New Form of National Power In the COVID-19 era, a country’s strength is determined not only by its military and economy, but also by its resilience.
Shutterstock / The Atlantic My Son Is Looking to Me for Answers—And I Don’t Have Them Anymore He’s asking me life’s biggest questions at the very moment when I am unlearning so much of what I used to know.
The Atlantic Why America Resists Learning From Other Countries The pandemic may pose the greatest threat yet to the belief that America has little to learn from the rest of the world.
Shutterstock / The Atlantic Brazil’s Pandemic Is Just Beginning The hardest-hit country in Latin America is facing a “perfect storm,” as inequality collides with COVID-19.


James Hamblin

James Hamblin , M.D.
, is a staff writer at The Atlantic .
He is also a lecturer at Yale School of Public Health and author of the forthcoming book Clean : The New Science of Skin Most cases are not life-threatening , which is also what makes the virus a historic challenge to contain .
• The exact risk is unknown , but it ’ s a good moment to make sure ventilation systems are working well .
• Wash your hands , but lay off the other parts .
• Paging Dr. Hamblin : My Brother Is Having @ @ @ @ @ @ @ No one should be expected to attend an in-person gathering right now .
• Paging Dr. Hamblin : When Will It Be Safe to Sing Together ?
Making music has benefits beyond tradition .
In a pandemic , though , it ’ s also riskier than staying silent .
• Curfews and Arrests Will Inflame the Pandemic Limiting the time and space available to protesters—and the rest of the public—puts everyone in more danger .
• Evidence is slowly mounting .
Some researchers think that ’ s enough to recommend it .
• @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for clinical depression .
Doctors are scrambling to determine who needs urgent intervention , and who is simply the new normal .
• Give people the public space they need right now .
• Why It ’ s Important Not to Drink Bleach Doctors and nurses are risking their lives and dying .
People are out of work and struggling to make rent .
The president of the United States is suggesting injecting disinfectant .
• Why Some People Get Sicker Than Others COVID-19 is proving to be a disease of the immune @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , be controlled .
• Why Does the President Keep Pushing a Malaria Drug ?
What is actually known about hydroxychloroquine , the medication that Trump is fixated on recommending for COVID-19 • An Ethicist on How to Make Impossible Decisions Arthur Caplan , NYU ’ s chief medical ethicist , discusses the tough calls doctors have to make on how to ration care .
• Three Scenarios for How This Ends On a recent episode of Social Distance , Ed Yong joins to discuss how the coronavirus outbreak will play out in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Is Not Flat Enough Hospitals are poised to face the kind of life-and-death decisions that industrialized countries typically encounter only in times of war and natural disaster .
• What You Can Do Right Now About the Coronavirus Preventing the spread of an outbreak requires a massive global effort , but here are steps everyone can take .

James Hamblin, M.D., is a former staff writer at The Atlantic. He is also a lecturer at Yale School of Public Health, a co-host of Social Distance , and the author of Clean: The New Science of Skin
Most cases are not life-threatening, which is also what makes the virus a historic challenge to contain.
Clara Margais / AP Farewell to Masks (For Now) The value of masks is falling. But it may rise again.
Amanda Voisard / The Washington Post /Getty Vaccine Lottery Tickets Are Sad, but Also Perfect Incentives may feel condescending, but they are what America does best.
Adam Maida / The Atlantic We Can’t Hide in Our Bubble of Immunity Forever As Americans abandon masks, the world is suffering around them.
Adam Maida / The Atlantic A Year Without Germs Months of exuberant hand-sanitizing and social isolation during the pandemic have changed our exposure to microbes, in ways good and bad.
Getty / Adam Maida / The Atlantic One Vaccine to Rule Them All What if a single vaccine could protect us against SARS, MERS, COVID-19, and every other coronavirus-related disease, forever and ever?
The Atlantic A Better Solution Than Laminating Your Vaccine Card Political grandstanding about vaccine passports serves no one.
George Etheridge / The New York Times / … The Urgency of Vaccinating Kids The fact that many adults are still refusing the vaccine makes immunizing children even more important.
Alexi Rosenfeld / Getty COVID-19 Is Different Now The coronavirus is changing. So is the disease it causes.
GRAEME JENNINGS / AFP / GETTY The Pandemic Is Ending In millions of small ways, every day. How long it takes is up to us.
Patrick T. FALLON / AFP / Getty The False Dilemma of Post-Vaccination Risk We’ll never know for sure how contagious people are after they’re vaccinated, but we do know how they should act.
Gabby Jones / Redux A Quite Possibly Wonderful Summer Families will gather. Restaurants will reopen. People will travel. The pandemic may feel like it’s behind us—even if it’s not.
Getty / The Atlantic The Brazil Variant Is Exposing the World’s Vulnerability Somehow the coronavirus is rampaging through a city that was supposedly immune.
Julian Montague Ask Dr. Hamblin: Am I Wrong to Tell Someone to Pull Up Her Mask? A woman who works in my pharmacy can’t seem to stay masked. Help.
Julian Montague Ask Dr. Hamblin: So When Can We Stop Wearing Masks? Hopefully one day, getting vaccinated will mean you no longer need a mask. But not yet.
Shutterstock / The Atlantic The Coronavirus Is Evolving Before Our Eyes The virus is mutating as expected. We can still stop it.
Julian Montague Ask Dr. Hamblin: Is My Fear of Vaccine Allergies Overblown? Despite alarming news reports, most allergies shouldn’t be an issue.
Peter Cade / Getty The Mysterious Link Between COVID-19 and Sleep The coronavirus can cause insomnia and long-term changes in our nervous systems. But sleep could also be a key to ending the pandemic.
Joe Raedle / Getty The Vaccine Is Here. Now for the Hard Part. An FDA-advisory-committee vote has marked the beginning of the end of the pandemic. But there’s still a long road ahead.
Julian Montague Paging Dr. Hamblin: I Want to Give People Cookies Is it okay to bake for my neighbors during the pandemic?


Nesima Aberra

Nesima Aberra is an assistant editor for audience and engagement at The Atlantic .
• Behind the Byline With Ed @ @ @ @ @ Yong , a staff writer who covers science , and how he approaches his work @ @ @ @ @ With Amanda Mull In our new series , meet Atlantic staffers to learn more about @ @ @ @ @ they approach their work .
• A collection of historical Ramadan prayer services , dinners @ @ @ @ @ world , leading up to the coronavirus lockdown • Show us how you enjoy The @ @ @ @ @ issue .

Nesima Aberra is a former assistant editor at The Atlantic.
Lauren Tamaki Behind the Byline With Adam Serwer Learn more about Adam Serwer, a staff writer who covers politics, and how he approaches his work.
Lauren Tamaki Behind the Byline With Hannah Giorgis Learn more about Hannah Giorgis, a staff writer who covers culture, and how she approaches her work.
Lauren Tamaki Behind the Byline With Ed Yong Learn more about Ed Yong, a staff writer who covers science, and how he approaches his work.
Lauren Tamaki Behind the Byline With Amanda Mull In our new series, meet Atlantic staffers to learn more about who they are and how they approach their work.
Hulton-Deutsch Collection / Corbis via Getty Celebrating Ramadan Before the Pandemic A collection of historical Ramadan prayer services, dinners, and gatherings around the world, leading up to the coronavirus lockdown
Arsh Raziuddin / The Atlantic Join the #AtlanticPoetryChallenge on Instagram Celebrate National Poetry Month with our writing prompts.


Marina Koren

Marina Koren is a staff writer at The Atlantic .
The residents of Boca Chica didn ’ t ask Elon Musk to move in , but now his company is taking over .
• A Mysterious Rhythm Is Coming From Another Galaxy Astronomers have been tracking fast radio bursts for years , but they ’ ve never caught one like this before .
• A Burst of Light Unlike Any Captured Before Astronomers say they have captured an unexpected spark from a collision of two black holes .
• Elon Musk ’ s Lesson in How Not to Celebrate Diversity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the recognition of Juneteenth as a holiday , with one big caveat .
• The False Hope of an American Rocket Launch Even in the tumultuous Apollo era , the feats of the country ’ s space program were a momentary diversion , not a national salve .
• Two NASA astronauts just arrived at the International Space Station in a SpaceX capsule .
• Elon Musk ’ s aerospace company just launched two NASA astronauts into space for the first time .
• American Spaceflight Is Now in Elon Musk ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ decades is about to lift off on a billionaire ’ s private rocket .
• The Astronaut Wives Know Exactly What to Expect These days , the women married to NASA ’ s space travelers are astronauts themselves .
• The Cult of Elon Is Cracking The SpaceX and Tesla CEO ’ s response to the coronavirus pandemic is starting to alienate his fans .
• New images of the planet allow astronomers to peer deeper into its stormy atmosphere .
• A Black Hole Is ‘ Almost on Our Doorstep ’ The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ double-star system just 1,000 light-years away .
• The Thorniest Subject at NASA Right Now The space agency is carefully following pandemic measures .
Elon Musk thinks they ’ re overblown .
But they ’ re going to the moon together .
• The Before Times of a Solar System New observations of young stars capture the cosmic forces that can transform tiny particles into colossal worlds .
• One Thing Space Agencies Must Watch Out for Now : Cats Operating a mission is a labyrinthian process from start to finish , with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the way .
• The response to the pandemic has created a collective aversion to previously innocuous behaviors and settings .
• The Mission NASA Doesn ’ t Want to Postpone So far , the pandemic isn ’ t stopping the space agency from moving forward with a historic SpaceX launch next month .
• We ’ re All Living in the ‘ From Now On , ’ Now Watching Apollo 13 for the first time , I couldn ’ t help fixating on how much the world has changed—not in the past @ @ @ @ @ @ @ few months .

Marina Koren is a staff writer at The Atlantic.
Before joining in 2015, Marina was a politics and breaking-news reporter at National Journal. She has written for Smithsonian magazine, Psychology Today, Popular Mechanics, and other publications. At The Atlantic, Marina writes about science, with a focus on space exploration.
Ben Kothe / The Atlantic. Source: Getty. Black Holes Swallow Everything, Even the Truth The most mysterious objects in the universe are fundamentally unknowable.
Eliseo Fernandez / Reuters We’re Gambling With the Only Good Oceans in the Universe Earth’s precious water made life possible. Now it’s simmering.
Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call / Getty UFOs Are Officially Mainstream Even Congress is getting in on the hype.
OceanGate / Handout / Anadolu Agency / Getty How Could This Have Happened? Five people died in a submersible that was only loosely regulated and may not have been inspected for safety.
Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Getty. The Titanic Sub and the Draw of Extreme Tourism Diving to the bottom of the ocean is risky. So is flying to space. But people will keep paying to do both.
NASA / JPL-Caltech Saturn’s Frozen Moon Just Got a Lot More Interesting New evidence suggests that Enceladus has an ocean that could sustain life.
Bettmann / Getty Why Everyone Is Suddenly Talking About Aliens A new report of secretive government programs investigating “non-human” vehicles and “pilots” bears a striking resemblance to many that came before.
Video by The Atlantic. Source: Sobli / RDB … NASA Learns the Ugly Truth About UFOs Talking about mysterious sightings in the sky can be a nasty business.
Illustration by Paul Spella / The Atlantic. Sources: … A Flash of Recognition in a Lonely Universe Beyond our solar system, the universe is full of planets—but also asteroids, auroras, and other familiar cosmic wonders.
Go Nakamura / Reuters The Messy Reality of Elon Musk’s Space City SpaceX’s explosive launch covered a Texas town in grime. It’s the latest dustup in the company’s unneighborly saga.
Patrick T. Fallon / Getty Elon Musk’s Explosive Day First SpaceX blew up a rocket. Then Musk blew up Twitter’s verification system.
Josh Valcarcel / NASA Not Your Grandfather’s Moon Mission NASA has picked the four astronauts who will fly to the moon next year—and this lineup looks different than the Apollo crews did.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / R. Hurt, T. Pyle … The Search for Earth Look-Alikes Is Getting Serious One promising planet turned out not to have an atmosphere. But there are six more where it came from.
Daniel Zender / The Atlantic; Getty Elon Musk Is Spiraling One Elon is a visionary; the other is a troll. The more he tweets, the harder it gets to tell them apart.
ESA / NASA / CSA Astronomers Were Not Expecting This Newly discovered galaxies are scrambling our story of the universe.
Simon Bruty / Allsport / Getty A New Age of UFO Mania Escalating from grainy videos of so-called aliens to fighter jets blowing things out of the sky will only fuel America’s obsession.
NASA The Most Mysterious Part of the Moon Isn’t Where You Think Forget the far side and consider the lunar poles.
Getty; The Atlantic The Chinese Balloon and the Disappointing Reality of UFOs Most strange sights in the sky have a very terrestrial explanation.