vox--2020-04-17--The scramble to feed the kids left hungry by the coronavirus crisis

As coronavirus has shut down the United States , schools have had no choice but to close and move classes — or at least , some semblance of them — online .
But some school services can ’ t be delivered remotely .
You can ’ t serve lunch over Zoom .
For millions of American families , though , school meal programs are essential , the difference between fed kids and hungry ones .
On a regular , non-pandemic school day , the National School Lunch Program provides free or low-cost meals to 29.7 million kids , while the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ daily .
And as the people who work in school nutrition are acutely aware , with skyrocketing unemployment , the need is only going up .
“ We ’ ve already seen new applications coming in , ” says Gay Anderson , child nutrition director for South Dakota ’ s Brandon Valley Schools and president of the School Nutrition Association .
In response , school nutrition programs have sprung into action , trying to figure out how to get food to the kids who depend on it without putting themselves — or the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which falls under the jurisdiction of the US Department of Agriculture , is a complicated operation on a good day ; now , districts are scrambling to navigate this new reality .
What those efforts look like on the ground varies widely : Some districts are operating curbside grab-and-go operations daily ; others are running twice-weekly delivery routes , with school buses ferrying meals instead of kids .
Some communities haven ’ t been hit hard by the virus yet ; others have had to temporarily suspend or scale back service , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Some are offering hazard pay to front-line workers , but many aren ’ t — there ’ s no federal funding allocated to improving labor conditions for essential staff .
The past few weeks have been “ a big cyclone of worrying , ” one cafeteria worker in Virginia told me .
“ Are the kids safe ?
Are we safe ?
Can we do this ?
Are they not going to get fed ?
” Then there ’ s an uncertain future to contend with : Districts are consumed with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the same time , school nutrition directors are trying to figure out what to do about next year , bracing for higher food costs on even more limited budgets .
Over the past week , I ’ ve been talking to school nutrition directors and food service workers across the country about their programs and what their lives look like now .
Our conversations have been condensed and edited for clarity .
I ’ m a front-line worker .
We ’ re still continuing to provide meals for the kids while they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ crisis .
I ’ m making 450 to 900 meals a day , depending on the request .
Not only am I making meals for my school , but I ’ m making meals for other schools in the district , and we ’ re sending them off .
I ’ ve only been at this job since January .
Before this started , I would come in around 9:30 , prep for the meals , cash out all the students that come through for lunch , and then clean afterward .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it wasn ’ t so scary .
Now we ’ re coming in at 6 am , maybe 6:30 am , every morning , and we ’ re working until maybe 1:30 , 2 o ’ clock .
We serve Monday through Friday from 10 am to 12 pm .
They ’ re all cold meals .
We probably do a turkey and cheese sandwich .
Maybe chips and dip .
Cereal , applesauce , carrots , celery , broccoli — anything that they need , we ’ re giving it to them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
I ’ m grateful to even be at work still .
A lot of people aren ’ t working , and unemployment checks haven ’ t hit a lot of people ’ s bank accounts yet .
I ’ m grateful .
But again , it ’ s scary .
Right now , I ’ m making $ 17 an hour .
We haven ’ t gotten any type of hazard pay .
We ’ re working on it , but we haven ’ t heard anything back yet .
I ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ don ’ t feel safe because I think that we need PPE .
It ’ s very important .
We need necessities that will protect us .
We all have gloves they give us , but we bring masks .
I brought my own , and then the next day , everybody wore masks .
They ’ re like , “ Oh , my god , we can wear masks ?
” I ’ m like , “ Yes !
We have to wear masks !
If you have to bring your own @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dying every day from this disease .
So it ’ s like , am I at risk ?
Am I putting myself at risk ?
Yes .
I ’ m a single mom .
I ’ m afraid that if I bring it home to my daughter , god forbid something happens to her .
So that ’ s my stress as well .
I miss seeing the kids .
Because lunch people , lunch staff , food service workers — whatever you want to call us — we affect the students as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up .
It ’ s like your own kid .
I used to go to school just to eat lunch .
I didn ’ t have food at home , so I know how much of an effect a school lunch person can have on a child .
You never know what a kid is going through .
When you see them and you smile , it matters .
It means something to them .
To this day at 32 years old , it still means something to me when I see the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ food when I didn ’ t have food .
She took care of me .
She ’ s a good person .
I try to be that role model for the kids when they come through my line .
It was a no-brainer that we would move into emergency feeding , so in mid-March I started gathering information to see what I needed to do to make that happen .
That essentially meant Googling “ emergency closure feeding for school nutrition ” and reading different articles about what schools had done during natural @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and West coasts were doing .
I knew I wanted to provide lunch for sure , breakfast if it was possible .
We started getting news that the USDA was going to loosen guidelines and allow us more flexibility in where and how we could feed kids during an emergency .
We have a waiver that allows us to serve in areas that would not normally qualify , because the free and reduced percentages are not as high .
We can treat it just like our summer food program , which is free @ @ @ @ @ @ @ don ’ t have to provide identification or anything like that .
We don ’ t need to know if you ’ re a student .
You just show up to the site and get a meal .
We have nine serving sites , and we have a home delivery route in our largest community — that ’ s considered the ninth site .
It ’ s just me , driving my car .
When we first started , we relied heavily on prepackaged items that we could just throw in a bag @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lunch and breakfast at the same time , so tons of prepackaged mini pancakes and mini bagels with cream cheese .
Precut apple slices .
Baby carrots that are packaged .
That allowed us to focus on the operation for a while rather than trying to focus on the food .
We just set up an assembly line on the cafeteria tables so that we could spread out and just started bagging .
We ’ ve moved away from the prepackaged stuff because it isn ’ t available .
We just can ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re having to do things like cup our own fruit and bag our own vegetables , which is tedious .
I ’ m usually in the kitchen by about 4:15 am , just getting stuff ready .
Today for lunch we did a ham and cheesy ranch croissant .
We ’ ve had to get very fancy with our bread choices because we can ’ t find anything else .
We ’ ve joked that we were going to put it on our regular menu and label it the Corona Special .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ were also the meal service people .
We learned quickly that that was not going to work .
I realized if we had any chance at all of making this sustainable for any length of time that I needed to keep the people preparing the food as insulated as I possibly could .
I think the thing that surprised me the most has been the level of responsibility I feel .
I want so much to make good decisions for my staff and for our communities , and it often feels like those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their lives are in my hands — in both cases , because I have definitely seen the need for our meals for families that are struggling .
I also see the fear in my employees ’ eyes .
Assistant cook at a school on an American Indian reservation , Montana We had to find a new system to serve the kids .
We do hot meals .
Comfort food .
We did breakfast for lunch today — premade omelets , pancakes , sliced oranges , milk .
Tomorrow ’ s going to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some scalloped potatoes , ham , fruit , and a dinner roll .
We would serve this on trays ; now it ’ s in a to-go box .
We have one central curbside pickup point at our main school — we ’ re pretty centrally located .
It ’ s a half-mile walking distance in each direction .
The town ’ s not very big .
There are five different towns on this reservation .
In other towns , the HPDP [ Indian Health Service ’ s Health Promotion and Disease Prevention @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have our own school , and that takes care of most of the feeding on this side of the reservation .
Our food program and their program are two different things .
Certain items are backed up .
Cleaning supplies , gloves .
Bags of chips , now — the little 8-ounce bags .
We ’ re serving about 500 meals a day , maybe 2,000 a week .
We can pretty much figure out the patterns .
Mondays are the busiest , and Fridays , because of the weekend .
I ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so I know the kids that need it , and I know the ones that will be all right .
We ’ re in a part of the state where the poverty is pretty high , so over 60 percent of kids qualify for free and reduced lunch .
Right now , we ’ re almost matching our normal numbers daily , so I know our district is doing pretty well .
Claine requested his school not be named in this article to protect student privacy .
I was actually in Washington , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ talk to an Ohio senator about child nutrition programs when I got the call from my district that we were closing the schools because of a possible Covid-19 case and I should get on the first plane back to Cincinnati .
This was March 10 .
Our schools didn ’ t actually close until March 16 , but we started doing meals on that very next day , because we had spent so much time preplanning , getting deliveries in , figuring out our sites .
We ’ re a little different than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ re actually preparing meals in one of their school kitchens .
Our district made the decision to close every single school building — they went in and did a massive cleaning of every single building and then sealed it so nobody can go in and possibly recontaminate it .
We ’ re working out of the test kitchen below our offices , so we ’ re capped at making 4,800 meals a day .
I normally serve between 55,000 and 60,000 meals a day , but that can ’ t happen when all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ imperative was our relationships with other community organizations , like UMC Food Ministry and Children ’ s Hunger Alliance , who were able to set up meal distribution at community centers — places of faith , YMCAs , Boys and Girls Clubs , libraries .
With those partnerships , we were able to fill in gaps that we couldn ’ t do alone as a school district .
At some places , we are running out of food .
That ’ s heartbreaking .
We tell the kids , “ Hold on , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ something , just hold on.
” Sometimes they ’ ll wait and sometimes they don ’ t .
Other sites we just don ’ t have as much volume at , but we feel strongly about keeping those open because they ’ re in corners of our city that are very far away from the center .
Our district is 92 square miles large .
It ’ s a very spread-out community .
Our projected loss — this is painful — from March 16 to May 22 , which is the end of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ million .
We only get reimbursement money when we serve a meal .
I am greatly decreased in the number of meals I ’ m serving , which means the amount of money I have coming in is very , very small .
But almost all my fixed costs stay the same .
Salary , electricity , water , garbage : All that stays the same .
It ’ s going to totally change how I look at what I can and can not offer .
I ’ ve been doing a lot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ m hoping the USDA reimburses districts for their fixed costs .
That would help a lot .
In Houston , after Hurricane Harvey , the USDA came through and said , “ All kids eat for free for the next four years .
Don ’ t worry about applications , don ’ t worry about paperwork .
Don ’ t worry about administrative red tape .
Feed the kids.
” I ’ m really hoping they ’ re going to look at the country and say , “ You know what , there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ income , that are on unemployment , that are struggling .
Across the country , the next four years , everybody eats for free .
Feed the kids , feed the nation , support our future , and let them all eat free.
” That ’ s my pie-in-the-sky ask .
We ’ d had a really bad outbreak of norovirus last spring break — when I say really bad , we shut down at least three of our elementary schools and our alternative high school for multiple days .
So , luckily @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ourselves a year to come up with a contagion plan .
We actually did a district leadership training back in January .
Have you ever done those hand-washing demos where you put glow-in-the-dark powder on your hands and then you go wash them under blacklight ?
We ’ d just done that with 200 of our district administrators .
We had no idea about coronavirus at that point .
Thank god for the contagion plan , because at the very least it gave us a structure to think about this — what would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ closed ?
What would it look like if all the buildings were closed ?
What it did not have were plans for a long-term closure .
That was not something we had anticipated .
But it came in very handy that Friday before spring break when we found ourselves sitting down to say , what does it look like if spring break is two weeks long ?
That was our original plan — we ’ re going to extend spring break a week and see if this blows over .
At first we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ car , ask how many kids are in your household — but there were way too many points of contact .
It was taking three to four people per site , times 10 sites , plus drivers to deliver , plus people back at our production kitchen ... it was just too many people .
The second week , we moved to a bus route distribution .
The buses still stop at those 10 schools in the loading zones and hand out meals to families , and they also run routes through the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ day of breakfast and lunch at a time to three days of breakfast and lunch at a time .
On Wednesdays , we ’ ve added two parking lot distributions where families can drive up and get the meals , as well as food from our local food bank .
On Thursday and Friday , when we do our route , we ’ re handing out what are called backpacks .
They ’ re basically a weekend bag .
A local nonprofit will purchase ready-to-eat and shelf-stable food — think Cup Noodles .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ s food , and it ’ s food that a person as young as second grade can put together themselves without assistance from an adult .
The first week , when we did the drive-up distribution , we served about 15,000 meals total for the week , breakfast and lunch combined .
Normally we serve 14,000 meals a day .
I came home after I did the numbers on that Friday and absolutely broke down to my partner .
We had a couple cocktails , and we got all of our angst out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , “ Okay , how are we going to fix this ?
” So we switched to our bus routes .
Last week , we served 42,000 meals , and it ’ s much closer to what we do in a normal school week .
I am immunocompromised , so I ’ m very conscious of my own health .
I ’ m doing most of the things that I should be — my alcohol intake at the end of every day probably doesn ’ t help my immune system , but it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ go with it .
I do feel safe .
I feel like we ’ re doing all that we can with what we have right now to make sure that we ’ re continuing to nourish our students and ensure that our staff is cared for .
Lunch ladies are not the kind of people who are going to sit at home through something like this .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
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As coronavirus has shut down the United States, schools have had no choice but to close and move classes — or at least, some semblance of them — online. But some school services can’t be delivered remotely. You can’t serve lunch over Zoom.
For millions of American families, though, school meal programs are essential, the difference between fed kids and hungry ones. On a regular, non-pandemic school day, the National School Lunch Program provides free or low-cost meals to 29.7 million kids, while the School Breakfast Program reaches 14.6 million students daily. And as the people who work in school nutrition are acutely aware, with skyrocketing unemployment, the need is only going up. “We’ve already seen new applications coming in,” says Gay Anderson, child nutrition director for South Dakota’s Brandon Valley Schools and president of the School Nutrition Association.
In response, school nutrition programs have sprung into action, trying to figure out how to get food to the kids who depend on it without putting themselves — or the students — at risk. School feeding, which falls under the jurisdiction of the US Department of Agriculture, is a complicated operation on a good day; now, districts are scrambling to navigate this new reality.
What those efforts look like on the ground varies widely: Some districts are operating curbside grab-and-go operations daily; others are running twice-weekly delivery routes, with school buses ferrying meals instead of kids. Some communities haven’t been hit hard by the virus yet; others have had to temporarily suspend or scale back service as food service workers have fallen ill. Some are offering hazard pay to front-line workers, but many aren’t — there’s no federal funding allocated to improving labor conditions for essential staff.
The past few weeks have been “a big cyclone of worrying,” one cafeteria worker in Virginia told me. “Are the kids safe? Are we safe? Can we do this? Are they not going to get fed?” Then there’s an uncertain future to contend with: Districts are consumed with the challenge of feeding kids now, and at the same time, school nutrition directors are trying to figure out what to do about next year, bracing for higher food costs on even more limited budgets.
Over the past week, I’ve been talking to school nutrition directors and food service workers across the country about their programs and what their lives look like now. Our conversations have been condensed and edited for clarity.
Shayna Williams
Contract food service worker for Amity Regional School District, Connecticut
I’m a front-line worker. We’re still continuing to provide meals for the kids while they’re out of school in this crisis. I’m making 450 to 900 meals a day, depending on the request. Not only am I making meals for my school, but I’m making meals for other schools in the district, and we’re sending them off.
I’ve only been at this job since January. Before this started, I would come in around 9:30, prep for the meals, cash out all the students that come through for lunch, and then clean afterward. It wasn’t so stressful, and it wasn’t so scary.
Now we’re coming in at 6 am, maybe 6:30 am, every morning, and we’re working until maybe 1:30, 2 o’clock. We serve Monday through Friday from 10 am to 12 pm. They’re all cold meals. We probably do a turkey and cheese sandwich. Maybe chips and dip. Cereal, applesauce, carrots, celery, broccoli — anything that they need, we’re giving it to them as long as it’s healthy.
I’m grateful to even be at work still. A lot of people aren’t working, and unemployment checks haven’t hit a lot of people’s bank accounts yet. I’m grateful. But again, it’s scary. Right now, I’m making $17 an hour. We haven’t gotten any type of hazard pay. We’re working on it, but we haven’t heard anything back yet. I’m hoping for the best.
I don’t feel safe because I think that we need PPE. It’s very important. We need necessities that will protect us. We all have gloves they give us, but we bring masks. I brought my own, and then the next day, everybody wore masks. They’re like, “Oh, my god, we can wear masks?” I’m like, “Yes! We have to wear masks! If you have to bring your own, bring your own.”
People are dying every day from this disease. So it’s like, am I at risk? Am I putting myself at risk? Yes. I’m a single mom. I’m afraid that if I bring it home to my daughter, god forbid something happens to her. So that’s my stress as well.
I miss seeing the kids. Because lunch people, lunch staff, food service workers — whatever you want to call us — we affect the students as well. You really watch them grow up. It’s like your own kid. I used to go to school just to eat lunch. I didn’t have food at home, so I know how much of an effect a school lunch person can have on a child. You never know what a kid is going through. When you see them and you smile, it matters. It means something to them. To this day, at 32 years old, it still means something to me when I see the lunch lady that used to give me food when I didn’t have food. She took care of me. She’s a good person. I try to be that role model for the kids when they come through my line.
Brook Brubeck
Food services director for Prairie Hills Unified School District, Kansas
It was a no-brainer that we would move into emergency feeding, so in mid-March I started gathering information to see what I needed to do to make that happen. That essentially meant Googling “emergency closure feeding for school nutrition” and reading different articles about what schools had done during natural disasters and what schools on the East and West coasts were doing.
I knew I wanted to provide lunch for sure, breakfast if it was possible. We started getting news that the USDA was going to loosen guidelines and allow us more flexibility in where and how we could feed kids during an emergency. We have a waiver that allows us to serve in areas that would not normally qualify, because the free and reduced percentages are not as high. We can treat it just like our summer food program, which is free for any child under 18. You don’t have to provide identification or anything like that. We don’t need to know if you’re a student. You just show up to the site and get a meal.
We have nine serving sites, and we have a home delivery route in our largest community — that’s considered the ninth site. It’s just me, driving my car.
When we first started, we relied heavily on prepackaged items that we could just throw in a bag. Uncrustables are huge. We serve lunch and breakfast at the same time, so tons of prepackaged mini pancakes and mini bagels with cream cheese. Precut apple slices. Baby carrots that are packaged. That allowed us to focus on the operation for a while rather than trying to focus on the food. We just set up an assembly line on the cafeteria tables so that we could spread out and just started bagging.
We’ve moved away from the prepackaged stuff because it isn’t available, we just can’t get it. So now we’re having to do things like cup our own fruit and bag our own vegetables, which is tedious. I’m usually in the kitchen by about 4:15 am, just getting stuff ready. Today for lunch we did a ham and cheesy ranch croissant. We’ve had to get very fancy with our bread choices because we can’t find anything else. We’ve joked that we were going to put it on our regular menu and label it the Corona Special.
The very first week, my cooks were also the meal service people. We learned quickly that that was not going to work. I realized if we had any chance at all of making this sustainable for any length of time that I needed to keep the people preparing the food as insulated as I possibly could.
I think the thing that surprised me the most has been the level of responsibility I feel. I want so much to make good decisions for my staff and for our communities, and it often feels like those are at odds. I feel like their lives are in my hands — in both cases, because I have definitely seen the need for our meals for families that are struggling. I also see the fear in my employees’ eyes.
Claine Raining bird
Assistant cook at a school on an American Indian reservation, Montana
We had to find a new system to serve the kids. We do hot meals. Comfort food. We did breakfast for lunch today — premade omelets, pancakes, sliced oranges, milk. Tomorrow’s going to be our Easter dinner. We normally do some scalloped potatoes, ham, fruit, and a dinner roll. We would serve this on trays; now it’s in a to-go box.
We have one central curbside pickup point at our main school — we’re pretty centrally located. It’s a half-mile walking distance in each direction. The town’s not very big. There are five different towns on this reservation. In other towns, the HPDP [Indian Health Service’s Health Promotion and Disease Prevention program] is doing meals. We have our own school, and that takes care of most of the feeding on this side of the reservation. Our food program and their program are two different things.
Certain items are backed up. Cleaning supplies, gloves. Bags of chips, now — the little 8-ounce bags. We’re serving about 500 meals a day, maybe 2,000 a week. We can pretty much figure out the patterns. Mondays are the busiest, and Fridays, because of the weekend. I’ve worked in all the schools, so I know the kids that need it, and I know the ones that will be all right. We’re in a part of the state where the poverty is pretty high, so over 60 percent of kids qualify for free and reduced lunch. Right now, we’re almost matching our normal numbers daily, so I know our district is doing pretty well.
Claine requested his school not be named in this article to protect student privacy.
Jessica Shelly
Director of student dining services for Cincinnati Public Schools, Ohio
I was actually in Washington, DC, on Capitol Hill about to talk to an Ohio senator about child nutrition programs when I got the call from my district that we were closing the schools because of a possible Covid-19 case and I should get on the first plane back to Cincinnati. This was March 10. Our schools didn’t actually close until March 16, but we started doing meals on that very next day, because we had spent so much time preplanning, getting deliveries in, figuring out our sites.
We’re a little different than most other districts, where they’re actually preparing meals in one of their school kitchens. Our district made the decision to close every single school building — they went in and did a massive cleaning of every single building and then sealed it so nobody can go in and possibly recontaminate it.
We’re working out of the test kitchen below our offices, so we’re capped at making 4,800 meals a day. I normally serve between 55,000 and 60,000 meals a day, but that can’t happen when all my schools are closed. What was imperative was our relationships with other community organizations, like UMC Food Ministry and Children’s Hunger Alliance, who were able to set up meal distribution at community centers — places of faith, YMCAs, Boys and Girls Clubs, libraries. With those partnerships, we were able to fill in gaps that we couldn’t do alone as a school district.
At some places, we are running out of food. That’s heartbreaking. We tell the kids, “Hold on, we’re going to get you something, just hold on.” Sometimes they’ll wait and sometimes they don’t. Other sites we just don’t have as much volume at, but we feel strongly about keeping those open because they’re in corners of our city that are very far away from the center. Our district is 92-square-miles large. It’s a very spread-out community.
Our projected loss — this is painful — from March 16 to May 22, which is the end of our school year, is $2.4 million. We only get reimbursement money when we serve a meal. I am greatly decreased in the number of meals I’m serving, which means the amount of money I have coming in is very, very small. But almost all my fixed costs stay the same. Salary, electricity, water, garbage: All that stays the same. It’s going to totally change how I look at what I can and cannot offer.
I’ve been doing a lot of policy and advocacy. I’m hoping the USDA reimburses districts for their fixed costs. That would help a lot. In Houston, after Hurricane Harvey, the USDA came through and said, “All kids eat for free for the next four years. Don’t worry about applications, don’t worry about paperwork. Don’t worry about administrative red tape. Feed the kids.”
I’m really hoping they’re going to look at the country and say, “You know what, there are so many families that have lost income, that are on unemployment, that are struggling. Across the country, the next four years, everybody eats for free. Feed the kids, feed the nation, support our future, and let them all eat free.” That’s my pie-in-the-sky ask.
Danielle Bock
Director of nutrition for Greeley-Evans Weld County School District 6, Colorado
We’d had a really bad outbreak of norovirus last spring break — when I say really bad, we shut down at least three of our elementary schools and our alternative high school for multiple days. So, luckily and coincidentally, we’d given ourselves a year to come up with a contagion plan. We actually did a district leadership training back in January. Have you ever done those hand-washing demos where you put glow-in-the-dark powder on your hands and then you go wash them under blacklight? We’d just done that with 200 of our district administrators. We had no idea about coronavirus at that point.
Thank god for the contagion plan, because at the very least it gave us a structure to think about this — what would it look like if one building was closed? What would it look like if all the buildings were closed? What it did not have were plans for a long-term closure. That was not something we had anticipated. But it came in very handy that Friday before spring break when we found ourselves sitting down to say, what does it look like if spring break is two weeks long? That was our original plan — we’re going to extend spring break a week and see if this blows over.
At first, we did drive-up distribution — stay in your car, ask how many kids are in your household — but there were way too many points of contact. It was taking three to four people per site, times 10 sites, plus drivers to deliver, plus people back at our production kitchen ... it was just too many people. The second week, we moved to a bus route distribution. The buses still stop at those 10 schools in the loading zones and hand out meals to families, and they also run routes through the neighborhood.
We went from serving one day of breakfast and lunch at a time to three days of breakfast and lunch at a time. On Wednesdays, we’ve added two parking lot distributions where families can drive up and get the meals, as well as food from our local food bank. On Thursday and Friday, when we do our route, we’re handing out what are called backpacks. They’re basically a weekend bag. A local nonprofit will purchase ready-to-eat and shelf-stable food — think Cup Noodles. Not super nutrient-dense, but it’s food, and it’s food that a person as young as second grade can put together themselves without assistance from an adult.
The first week, when we did the drive-up distribution, we served about 15,000 meals total for the week, breakfast and lunch combined. Normally we serve 14,000 meals a day. I came home after I did the numbers on that Friday and absolutely broke down to my partner. We had a couple cocktails, and we got all of our angst out about it, and then I said, “Okay, how are we going to fix this?” So we switched to our bus routes. Last week, we served 42,000 meals, and it’s much closer to what we do in a normal school week.
I am immunocompromised, so I’m very conscious of my own health. I’m doing most of the things that I should be — my alcohol intake at the end of every day probably doesn’t help my immune system, but it’s my quarantini, so I go with it. I do feel safe. I feel like we’re doing all that we can with what we have right now to make sure that we’re continuing to nourish our students and ensure that our staff is cared for. Lunch ladies are not the kind of people who are going to sit at home through something like this.


vox--2020-04-17--I voted in South Korea’s elections. This is what democracy should look like in a pandemic.

I voted in South Korea ’ s elections .
This is what democracy should look like in a pandemic .
Share All sharing options for : I voted in South Korea ’ s elections .
This is what democracy should look like in a pandemic .
SEONGNAM , South Korea — On April 15 , millions of people across South Korea donned face masks , rubber gloves , and hand sanitizer to cast their votes in a nationwide election .
Poll workers wore face protection , masks , and medical gloves .
Upon arrival at the polling station , voters @ @ @ @ @ @ @ showing signs of fever was taken to a more secluded area of the building to cast their ballots .
Separate polling stations were set up outside of hospitals for people infected with Covid-19 to vote .
The strict health and safety measures South Korea ’ s government put in place for election day could serve as a blueprint for the rest of the world — including the United States — on how to safely hold an election amid the coronavirus pandemic .
In-person voting is a risky prospect right now , as public @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of people gather in small , enclosed areas like polling places is one of the surest ways to spread the extremely contagious coronavirus .
This scenario played out in Wisconsin last week , when Republican lawmakers and the state ’ s conservative-controlled Supreme Court rejected the Democratic governor ’ s attempts to postpone the state ’ s scheduled elections or change voting rules to allow people to vote by mail .
The result was a political and public health nightmare : Wisconsin voters were forced to either stay home and forfeit their votes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ measures and risk their health to cast their votes in person at their local polling places .
Thousands chose the latter option .
With little time to prepare , poll workers scrambled to do whatever they could to minimize the risk of the virus spreading .
Photos showed voters — many wearing masks , but some not — trying to maintain social distancing guidelines ( remaining at least 6 feet apart ) as best they could while standing in long lines waiting to vote , before being ushered into cramped schools , gyms @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cast their ballots .
The state ’ s public health officials have said it could be weeks before they know whether Wisconsin ’ s elections triggered a wider outbreak of the coronavirus , and some state party officials worry the chaos around the election has damaged its legitimacy in the eyes of many voters .
But as South Korea ’ s very different experience on Wednesday shows , things didn ’ t have to go that way .
South Korean voters had to go through extensive sanitization measures As of election day , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 10,600 confirmed cases of coronavirus and more than 220 deaths .
The country saw its peak of Covid-19 cases on February 29 , when it recorded more than 900 new cases .
Now , a month and a half later , the number of new cases linger at around 30 a day — one of the quickest turnarounds for any country struggling with the virus .
Experts credit the drastic drop in numbers to a proactive government that has pushed aggressive preventive measures and consistent testing .
The government bet on these same @ @ @ @ @ @ @ election by a country during the Covid-19 pandemic .
Entering the polling station was an extensive process .
My polling station in Pangyo , Seongnam , was a community center within my apartment complex .
There was a line out the door when I arrived at 10 am , which is when voters usually swarm to the polls .
As soon as I walked through the entrance , I had to stop at a “ sanitizing station ” where four officials stood armed with a thermometer that took my temperature when hovered above @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sanitizer , and boxes of disposable gloves .
Once they checked I had a mask on ( I had brought one from home ) , they took my temperature to ensure that I showed no fever ; those who had a temperature above 37.5 degrees Celsius ( 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit ) were escorted to a separate polling booth in a secluded area before being sent for virus testing .
They then squeezed hand sanitizer into my palms and gave me gloves to cover my clean hands .
Officials had already marked the floors @ @ @ @ @ @ @ meter ( 3.28 feet ) apart to ensure that voters were safely distanced while standing in line .
Most people adhered to the stickers , and when a few inched up to the people in front of them out of impatience , the head supervisor of the poll instantly shooed them back into place .
The only time I took off my mask was when an official compared my face with my photo ID , which is required in South Korea to prevent voter fraud , and the entire process only lasted about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ turn , I walked into one of the four voting booths , lined up a few feet apart from the other voters , with two paper ballots in my hand .
The stamp I used to mark my vote slipped a bit in my gloved hands , but the gloves were necessary since there weren ’ t sanitizer wipes available to wipe down any surfaces .
The government said it would frequently sanitize polling stations , but the booth wasn ’ t disinfected before the next voter walked in after me .
Once @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ushered to a large pink trash bag taped to the wall , dedicated to the disposal of gloves .
A poll worker pointed to the trash bag and then to my hands to indicate I needed to remove my gloves before leaving .
Despite the long line and multiple sanitization steps , I was in and out of the building in less than 10 minutes .
Separate polling booths were set up outside of hospitals for Covid-19 patients with mild symptoms , and those in more severe conditions mailed in their ballots .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ address was the nearly 60,000 people in quarantine ; 22.8 percent of these people — a total of 13,642 — applied to vote and were given the option to leave their houses at 5:20 pm to arrive at their polling stations by 6 pm , after the rest of the population finished voting .
They then had an hour to cast their ballots and return to their homes by 7 pm .
BBC reported that they then had to call the government to announce their return home ; failure to do so could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
It ’ s an efficient system , but it ’ s not foolproof .
There are still some risk factors that make experts like Kim Woo-joo , a professor of infectious diseases at Korea University Guro Hospital , wary .
Kim said it all depends on the cooperation of the quarantined people .
If they fail to follow the rules , it could easily lead to another outbreak .
“ I ’ m concerned that some people might finish voting before 7 pm and use their remaining time to wander , such @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” he said .
“ They may think they ’ re harmless because they don ’ t seem sick , but we already know that asymptomatic people can transfer the virus.
” Ultimately , the success of this election won ’ t be tested until two weeks from now , once the incubation period of the virus is over .
But if there isn ’ t a major surge in cases by then , the US could learn a few lessons on how to successfully hold elections , especially as November inches @ @ @ @ @ @ @ comfortable voting because of the government ’ s effective response to the pandemic The masks , hand sanitizer , and plastic gloves may have been an odd sight , but in many ways , election day felt like any other election : Families arrived in groups at polling stations , some brought their pets , and neighbors greeted each other at the entrance .
Kim Yu-jin , 36 , who wheeled her child in a stroller as she voted with her husband , said she was happy with the way the elections were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prepared , ” she said .
“ As a country , we ’ ve already been doing a good job at social distancing , and individuals have been proactively using masks and hand sanitizer .
Everyone ’ s been trying to be as cautious as possible , which helped boost the government ’ s efforts to ensure a safe election.
” Bu Kyeong-hee , 48 , said opening the polls as planned was not only the best way to ensure a smooth election but also the most logical step for a country that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
She added that other countries could learn from the aggressive measures taken by both the government and individuals to prevent infections and maintain social distancing while proceeding with crucial democratic events .
Hwang Sung-ha , 37 , also thought it was appropriate for the government to push forward with the election because people could have a direct say in picking officials who would rebuild the country ravaged by the Covid-19 pandemic .
Not everyone agrees , though : While Lee Kyeong-sook , 67 , also said she was impressed by how the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she had initially hoped for the government to postpone the event .
“ My friends and I all agreed that we wished the government had delayed the election , ” she said .
“ They ’ ve already been asking people my age to stay inside , so I wonder why they pushed for us to show up at the polls today.
” But ultimately , Lee — who cast her ballot along with more than 29 million others around the country — said she did so because it ’ s her duty @ @ @ @ @ @ @ right that Koreans obtained only in 1948 , which is why she considers it so important to voice her opinion through elections .
“ We need to come together for the best of our country — especially during times like this , ” she said .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

I voted in South Korea’s elections. This is what democracy can look like in a pandemic.
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SEONGNAM, South Korea — On April 15, millions of people across South Korea donned face masks, rubber gloves, and hand sanitizer to cast their votes in a nationwide election.
Poll workers wore face protection, masks, and medical gloves. Upon arrival at the polling station, voters’ temperatures were taken, and anyone showing signs of fever was taken to a more secluded area of the building to cast their ballots. Separate polling stations were set up outside of hospitals for people infected with Covid-19 to vote.
The strict health and safety measures South Korea’s government put in place for election day could serve as a blueprint for the rest of the world — including the United States — on how to safely hold an election amid the coronavirus pandemic.
In-person voting is a risky prospect right now, as public health experts warn that having large numbers of people gather in small, enclosed areas like polling places is one of the surest ways to spread the extremely contagious coronavirus.
This scenario played out in Wisconsin last week, when Republican lawmakers and the state’s conservative-controlled Supreme Court rejected the Democratic governor’s attempts to postpone the state’s scheduled elections or change voting rules to allow people to vote by mail.
The result was a political and public health nightmare: Wisconsin voters were forced to either stay home and forfeit their votes or violate the state’s stay-at-home measures and risk their health to cast their votes in person at their local polling places. Thousands chose the latter option.
With little time to prepare, poll workers scrambled to do whatever they could to minimize the risk of the virus spreading. Photos showed voters — many wearing masks, but some not — trying to maintain social distancing guidelines (remaining at least 6 feet apart) as best they could while standing in long lines waiting to vote, before being ushered into cramped schools, gyms, public libraries, and churches to cast their ballots.
The state’s public health officials have said it could be weeks before they know whether Wisconsin’s elections triggered a wider outbreak of the coronavirus, and some state party officials worry the chaos around the election has damaged its legitimacy in the eyes of many voters.
But as South Korea’s very different experience on Wednesday shows, things didn’t have to go that way.
South Korean voters had to go through extensive sanitization measures
As of election day, April 15, South Korea had nearly 10,600 confirmed cases of coronavirus and more than 220 deaths. The country saw its peak of Covid-19 cases on February 29, when it recorded more than 900 new cases. Now, a month and a half later, the number of new cases lingers at around 30 a day — one of the quickest turnarounds for any country struggling with the virus.
Experts credit the drastic drop in numbers to a proactive government that has pushed aggressive preventive measures and consistent testing. The government bet on these same methods to safely hold the first national election by a country during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Entering the polling station was an extensive process. My polling station in Pangyo, Seongnam, was a community center within my apartment complex. There was a line out the door when I arrived at 10 am, which is when voters usually swarm to the polls.
As soon as I walked through the entrance, I had to stop at a “sanitizing station” where four officials stood armed with a thermometer that took my temperature when hovered above my forehead, several bottles of hand sanitizer, and boxes of disposable gloves.
Once they checked I had a mask on (I had brought one from home), they took my temperature to ensure that I showed no fever; those who had a temperature above 37.5 degrees Celsius (99.5 degrees Fahrenheit) were escorted to a separate polling booth in a secluded area before being sent for virus testing. They then squeezed hand sanitizer into my palms and gave me gloves to cover my clean hands.
Officials had already marked the floors ahead of time with stickers spaced one meter (3.28 feet) apart to ensure that voters were safely distanced while standing in line. Most people adhered to the stickers, and when a few inched up to the people in front of them out of impatience, the head supervisor of the poll instantly shooed them back into place.
The only time I took off my mask was when an official compared my face with my photo ID, which was required in the South Korean elections, and the entire process only lasted about 10 seconds.
Once it was my turn, I walked into one of the four voting booths, lined up a few feet apart from the other voters, with two paper ballots in my hand. The stamp I used to mark my vote slipped a bit in my gloved hands, but the gloves were necessary since there weren’t sanitizer wipes available to wipe down any surfaces. The government said it would frequently sanitize polling stations, but the booth wasn’t disinfected before the next voter walked in after me.
Once I cast my ballot, I was ushered to a large pink trash bag taped to the wall, dedicated to the disposal of gloves. A poll worker pointed to the trash bag and then to my hands to indicate I needed to remove my gloves before leaving.
Despite the long line and multiple sanitization steps, I was in and out of the building in less than 10 minutes.
Separate polling booths were set up outside of hospitals for Covid-19 patients with mild symptoms, and those in more severe conditions mailed in their ballots.
The largest group the government had to address was the nearly 60,000 people in quarantine; 22.8 percent of these people — a total of 13,642 — applied to vote and were given the option to leave their houses at 5:20 pm to arrive at their polling stations by 6 pm, after the rest of the population finished voting.
They had an hour to cast their ballots and return to their homes by 7 pm. The BBC reported that they then had to call the government to announce their return home; failure to do so could lead to a visit from the police.
It’s an efficient system, but it’s not foolproof. There are still some risk factors that make experts like Kim Woo-joo, a professor of infectious diseases at Korea University Guro Hospital, wary.
Kim said it all depends on the cooperation of the quarantined people. If they fail to follow the rules, it could easily lead to another outbreak.
Related Democrats should make voting reform a nonnegotiable baseline for the next stimulus bill
“I’m concerned that some people might finish voting before 7 pm and use their remaining time to wander, such as going shopping or visiting coffee shops,” he said. “They may think they’re harmless because they don’t seem sick, but we already know that asymptomatic people can transfer the virus.”
Ultimately, the success of this election won’t be tested until two weeks from now, once the incubation period of the virus is over. But if there isn’t a major surge in cases by then, the US could learn a few lessons on how to successfully hold elections, especially as November inches closer.
Most people seemed to feel comfortable voting because of the government’s effective response to the pandemic
The masks, hand sanitizer, and plastic gloves may have been an odd sight, but in many ways, election day felt like any other election: Families arrived in groups at polling stations, some brought their pets, and neighbors greeted each other at the entrance.
Kim Yu-jin, 36, who wheeled her child in a stroller as she voted with her husband, said she was happy with the way the elections were held.
“The government was perfectly prepared,” she said. “As a country, we’ve already been doing a good job at social distancing, and individuals have been proactively using masks and hand sanitizer. Everyone’s been trying to be as cautious as possible, which helped boost the government’s efforts to ensure a safe election.”
Bu Kyeong-hee, 48, said opening the polls as planned was not only the best way to ensure a smooth election but also the most logical step for a country that is slowly easing back into normal life. She added that other countries could learn from the aggressive measures taken by both the government and individuals to prevent infections and maintain social distancing while proceeding with crucial democratic events.
Hwang Sung-ha, 37, also thought it was appropriate for the government to push forward with the election because people could have a direct say in picking officials who would rebuild the country ravaged by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Not everyone agrees, though: While Lee Kyeong-sook, 67, also said she was impressed by how the government handled the election, she said she had initially hoped for the government to postpone the event.
“My friends and I all agreed that we wished the government had delayed the election,” she said. “They’ve already been asking people my age to stay inside, so I wonder why they pushed for us to show up at the polls today.”
But ultimately, Lee — who cast her ballot along with more than 29 million others around the country — said she did so because it’s her duty as a citizen. Voting is a right that Koreans obtained only in 1948, which is why she considers it so important to voice her opinion through elections.
“We need to come together for the best of our country — especially during times like this,” she said.


vox--2020-04-17--This viral Angela Merkel clip explains the risks of loosening social distancing too fast

When you have a huge hole where your nation ’ s leadership should be , it is wise to borrow the best of other people ’ s leaders .
They can ’ t make America ’ s big decisions , but they can fill in some of the gaps .
In the Covid-19 pandemic , we can take comfort in their competence and use their wisdom to guide us about what we each should do .
Right now , the US and many other nations are considering easing social distancing and other restrictions if and when their new coronavirus cases @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fall .
And German Prime Minister Angela Merkel ( who happens to have scientific chops ) has an important lesson that we should all listen to .
On Wednesday , she laid out important logic about the coronavirus pandemic that hasn ’ t been communicated clearly enough here in the US .
In simple and clear terms , she explains why Germany doesn ’ t have much “ wiggle room ” in its hospital capacity .
Because of this , any lifting of its lockdown , like allowing some shops to open next @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ice.
” Merkel ’ s explanation , which went viral , is centered on the metric called R0 , or basic reproduction number .
It represents the number of people a sick person will infect on average in a group that ’ s susceptible to the disease ( meaning they don ’ t already have immunity ) .
She says that if Germany ’ s R0 were to shift from a flat rate of 1.0 to 1.1 , the nation ’ s hospitals will be crushed by October , without sufficient resources to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Covid-19 patients .
If the R0 goes up to 1.2 , that overload hits in July .
And so on .
Covid ’ s current global average R0 is 2-2.5 , but Germany has done a good enough job of managing its outbreak to get its reported estimated R0 down to 0.7 as of April 17 .
That ’ s low enough for Merkel to sanction “ a tentative easing of restriction.
” America , for many reasons , has even less wiggle room than that .
Germany has eight hospital beds per @ @ @ @ @ @ @ beds .
In ICU beds , Germany has 8.3 per capita while America has 6.6 .
It is also testing for coronavirus at twice our rate ( 21 vs 9.8 tests per 1,000 people ) .
Without robust testing , you can ’ t keep good tabs on R0 or the related Rt — and you can end up flying blind , risking health system overload and avoidable deaths .
Covid-19 spreads in an exponential way , and it ’ s worth emphasizing exponential growth ’ s dynamics .
Tiny shifts in risk @ @ @ @ @ @ @ results as this useful tweet thread shows : The small choices we each make about risky behaviors are like playing Russian Roulette , but with a machine gun .
You may have thought that if you ’ re not in a high-risk group ( like older adults ) , and the case fatality rate is around 1 percent , then the threat isn ’ t so great .
Surely we can loosen restrictions ?
But that ’ s like being locked in a room with 100 people , where your collective behavior determines @ @ @ @ @ @ @ machine gun that ’ s about to strafe all of you .
You might not die , but others surely will .
Covid-19 is already the leading cause of death in many areas , including New York state , Louisiana , and Washington , DC .
Do you want to add ammunition to its arsenal ?
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

When you have a huge hole where your nation’s leadership should be, it is wise to borrow the best of other people’s leaders. They can’t make America’s big decisions, but they can fill in some of the gaps.
In the Covid-19 pandemic, we can take comfort in their competence and use their wisdom to guide us about what we each should do.
Right now, the United States and many other nations are considering easing social distancing and other restrictions if and when their new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations become flat or start to fall. And German Chancellor Angela Merkel (who happens to have scientific chops) has an important lesson that we should all listen to.
On Wednesday, she laid out important logic about the coronavirus pandemic that hasn’t been communicated clearly enough here in the US. In simple and clear terms, she explains why Germany doesn’t have much “wiggle room” in its hospital capacity. Because of this, any lifting of its lockdown, like allowing some shops to open next week, will remain “on thin ice.”
Merkel’s explanation, which went viral, is centered on the metric called R0, or basic reproduction number. It represents the number of people a sick person will infect on average in a group that’s susceptible to the disease (meaning they don’t already have immunity).
She says that if Germany’s R0 were to shift from a flat rate of 1.0 to 1.1, the nation’s hospitals would be crushed by October, without sufficient resources to care for all of the severely ill Covid-19 patients. If the R0 goes up to 1.2, that overload hits in July. And so on.
Related Why France has 4 times as many coronavirus deaths as Germany
Covid’s current global average R0 is 2-2.5, but Germany has done a good enough job of managing its outbreak to get its reported estimated R0 down to 0.7 as of April 17. That’s low enough for Merkel to sanction “a tentative easing of restriction.”
Germany is not out of the woods, however. Marieke Degen, the deputy spokesperson of Germany’s Robert Koch Institute, told Vox’s Alex Ward that it’s “very important to stress that Germany is still at the beginning of the epidemic” and that more and more elderly people in the country are getting sick.
America, for many reasons, has even less wiggle room than Germany. Germany has eight hospital beds per capita compared to America’s 2.7 beds. In ICU beds, Germany has 8.3 per capita while America has 6.6.
It is also testing for coronavirus at twice the US rate (21 vs 9.8 tests per 1,000 people). Without robust testing, you can’t keep good tabs on R0 or the related Rt — and you can end up flying blind, risking health system overload and avoidable deaths.
Here's Instagram co-founder @kevin's new virus site that takes his recent models and updates them live in real time, in collaboration with @mikeyk — https://t.co/zpi35TIEdw pic.twitter.com/2qHZLDaL5n — Emily Chang (@emilychangtv) April 17, 2020
Covid-19 spreads in an exponential way, and it’s worth emphasizing exponential growth’s dynamics. Tiny shifts in risk grow very quickly, leading to deadly results, as this useful tweet thread shows:
Exponentials still have the capacity to shock me.
If mass wearing of masks make just 0.01 shift in the spread per day, from say 1.22x to 1.21x, there would now be ~20% fewer cases (and ~20% fewer deaths) in the UK since March 12.
I had to double check that multiple times. — Do
Syme (@dsymetweets) April 5, 2020
The small choices we each make about risky behaviors are like playing Russian roulette, but with a machine gun. You may have thought that if you’re not in a high-risk group (like older adults), and the case fatality rate is around 1 percent, then the threat isn’t so great. Surely we can loosen restrictions?
But that’s like being locked in a room with 100 people, where your collective behavior determines how many bullets are live in the machine gun that’s about to strafe all of you. You might not die, but others surely will.
Covid-19 is already the leading cause of death in many areas, including New York state, Louisiana, and Washington, DC. Do you want to add ammunition to its arsenal?


vox--2020-04-17--Trump’s plan to reopen America can’t work without a massive surge in testing

The number of new coronavirus tests reported each day has plateaued — a big blow to the prospects of America reopening its economy safely anytime soon , even as President Donald Trump insists the country is weeks away from doing so .
Trump announced guidelines on April 16 for states to reopen , calling for governors to ease social distancing measures , such as stay-at-home orders , as the number of new coronavirus cases begin to come down .
He acknowledged a requirement for reopening the economy is that the federal government and states must know that the numbers of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ; without widespread testing , they simply can ’ t know what they ’ re dealing with and how to act .
“ Our best scientists & health experts assess that states today have enough tests to implement the criteria of phase one , if they choose , ” Vice President Mike Pence said at a press conference the night of April 17 .
But according to the Covid Tracking Project , the US has averaged fewer than 150,000 tests each day so far in the week of April 13 , including at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s an improvement from the early days of March , when the country reported new tests in the dozens and later the hundreds .
But it ’ s not an increase from more recent weeks : In the week of April 6 , the country also averaged fewer than 150,000 tests a day .
What the country needs to properly do testing , according to experts , is at least 500,000 tests a day .
Some experts call for much more than that — millions or even tens of millions a day @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the US needs to be doing multiple times the testing that it ’ s currently doing to be able to test everyone with symptoms and their close contacts .
A recognition of that fact is perhaps the biggest reason the US is social distancing now .
One of the big goals during this period is to flatten the curve — reducing the spread of the virus — as the US scales up testing and surveillance systems to let the nation and states better control new clusters of cases .
“ The whole point @ @ @ @ @ @ @ us time to build up capacity to do the types of public health interventions we know work , ” Natalie Dean , a biostatistics professor at the University of Florida , told me .
“ If we ’ re not using this time to scale up testing to the level that we need it to be … we don ’ t have an exit strategy .
And then when we lift things , we ’ re no better equipped than we were before.
” Testing gives officials the means to isolate sick people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ those verified to be sick came into close contact with ( a.k.a .
“ contact tracing ” ) , and deploy community-wide efforts if a new cluster of cases is too large and uncontrolled otherwise .
Without it , the only way to deal with the outbreak is more social distancing , which further hurts the economy , or letting the disease run its course — at the cost of potentially hundreds of thousands or millions of lives .
The recent slowdown in new tests is driven by shortages in nasal swabs , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ kits , and machines needed to run the specific tests required .
According to David Lim at Politico , some labs also complain that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ’ s testing criteria — which prioritizes hospitalized patients , health care workers , and those vulnerable to the virus , such as older people — is holding back potential tests , leaving existing testing capacity unused .
To fix the gaps , experts argue , the federal government needs to relax criteria for testing , invest in new supplies and labs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ address , among other issues , chokepoints .
States , with limited resources and little control of the national supply chain , simply can ’ t do this all on their own .
Such fixes , however , are easier said than done .
Experts warn the next phase of testing will be much more difficult than the initial phase , which largely required getting existing labs to start doing coronavirus testing — the low-hanging fruit .
“ We ’ ve made substantial progress ramping testing this month , ” Scott Gottlieb , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Drug Administration , wrote in a tweet on April 10 .
“ But many gains were made by getting players into fight ( clinical labs , academic labs ) .
Now we must expand lab capacity , platforms , throughput , test kits .
Getting next million tests/week will be harder than getting first.
” This is one reason the plans to end social distancing are so grim : Not only do they suggest that some level of social distancing will be needed for the next year or so ( until a vaccine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ available ) — which we don ’ t know if the country can sustain — but they call for a level of surveillance and testing the US simply hasn ’ t yet shown the ability and willingness to build and manage .
It ’ s possible the US could get a lucky break ; there ’ s still a lot about the coronavirus that we don ’ t know , and maybe as we learn more , we ’ ll realize the country can be spared the worst .
( That ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ve already seen across the globe , but it ’ s possible . )
The Trump administration and states also still have time to ease testing criteria and scale up capacity in the coming weeks .
But unless something changes , America is simply not meeting the benchmark of aggressive testing that experts say is necessary to start to reopen the country .
As eager as Trump is to get the economy going again , the US just isn ’ t ready to do it in a safe way yet .
Every day @ @ @ @ @ @ @ your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

The number of new coronavirus tests reported each day has plateaued — a big blow to the prospects of America reopening its economy safely anytime soon, even as President Donald Trump insists the country is weeks away from doing so.
Trump announced guidelines on April 16 for states to reopen, calling for governors to ease social distancing measures, such as stay-at-home orders, as the number of new coronavirus cases begin to come down. He acknowledged a requirement for reopening the economy is that the federal government and states must know that the numbers of new coronavirus cases are actually coming down; without widespread testing, they simply can’t know what they’re dealing with and how to act.
“Our best scientists & health experts assess that states today have enough tests to implement the criteria of phase one, if they choose,” Vice President Mike Pence said at a press conference the night of April 17.
But according to the Covid Tracking Project, the US has averaged fewer than 150,000 tests each day so far in the week of April 13, including at both public and commercial labs. That’s an improvement from the early days of March, when the country reported new tests in the dozens and later the hundreds. But it’s not an increase from more recent weeks: In the week of April 6, the country also averaged fewer than 150,000 tests a day.
What the country needs to properly do testing, according to experts, is at least 500,000 tests a day. Some experts call for much more than that — millions or even tens of millions a day — but the general point is that the US needs to be doing multiple times the testing that it’s currently doing to be able to test everyone with symptoms and their close contacts.
A recognition of that fact is perhaps the biggest reason the US is social distancing now. One of the big goals during this period is to flatten the curve — reducing the spread of the virus — as the US scales up testing and surveillance systems to let the nation and states better control new clusters of cases.
“The whole point of this social distancing is to buy us time to build up capacity to do the types of public health interventions we know work,” Natalie Dean, a biostatistics professor at the University of Florida, told me. “If we’re not using this time to scale up testing to the level that we need it to be … we don’t have an exit strategy. And then when we lift things, we’re no better equipped than we were before.”
Testing gives officials the means to isolate sick people, track and quarantine the people whom those verified to be sick came into close contact with (a.k.a. “contact tracing”), and deploy community-wide efforts if a new cluster of cases is too large and uncontrolled otherwise. Without it, the only way to deal with the outbreak is more social distancing, which further hurts the economy, or letting the disease run its course — at the cost of potentially hundreds of thousands or millions of lives.
The recent slowdown in new tests is driven by shortages in nasal swabs, personal protective equipment, reagents, test kits, and machines needed to run the specific tests required. According to David Lim at Politico, some labs also complain that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s testing criteria — which prioritizes hospitalized patients, health care workers, and those vulnerable to the virus, such as older people — is holding back potential tests, leaving existing testing capacity unused.
To fix the gaps, experts argue, the federal government needs to relax criteria for testing, invest in new supplies and labs, and better coordinate supply chains to address, among other issues, chokepoints. States, with limited resources and little control of the national supply chain, simply can’t do this all on their own.
Such fixes, however, are easier said than done. Experts warn the next phase of testing will be much more difficult than the initial phase, which largely required getting existing labs to start doing coronavirus testing — the low-hanging fruit.
“We’ve made substantial progress ramping testing this month,” Scott Gottlieb, a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, wrote in a tweet on April 10. “But many gains were made by getting players into fight (clinical labs, academic labs). Now we must expand lab capacity, platforms, throughput, test kits. Getting next million tests/week will be harder than getting first.”
This is one reason the plans to end social distancing are so grim: Not only do they suggest that some level of social distancing will be needed for the next year or so (until a vaccine or a similarly effective treatment is widely available) — which we don’t know if the country can sustain — but they call for a level of surveillance and testing the US simply hasn’t yet shown the ability and willingness to build and manage.
It’s possible the US could get a lucky break; there’s still a lot about the coronavirus that we don’t know, and maybe as we learn more, we’ll realize the country can be spared the worst. (That’s optimistic, given the outbreaks we’ve already seen across the globe, but it’s possible.) The Trump administration and states also still have time to ease testing criteria and scale up capacity in the coming weeks.
But unless something changes, America is simply not meeting the benchmark of aggressive testing that experts say is necessary to start to reopen the country. As eager as Trump is to get the economy going again, the US just isn’t ready to do it in a safe way yet.


vox--2020-04-17--Exclusive: A new Senate plan would guarantee paychecks for workers who are furloughed or laid off

Support for a once-radical idea — the government funding of company payrolls — is growing in Congress , as the legislative body scrambles to respond to the coronavirus pandemic and the massive economic fallout that ’ s resulted .
The newest proposal on the subject , the Paycheck Security Act , comes from Sens .
Bernie Sanders ( I-VT ) , Mark Warner ( D-VA ) , Doug Jones ( D-AL ) , and Richard Blumenthal ( D-CT ) : Their bill , which was shared exclusively with Vox , would fund a portion of a company ’ s payroll @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worker who has been laid off or furloughed , if a business can demonstrate that it has suffered a 20 percent month-over-month drop in revenue .
The thinking behind the legislation is similar to that of a bill introduced by Rep. Pramila Jayapal ( D-WA ) last week and an idea put forth by Republican Sen. Josh Hawley ( MO ) in a Washington Post op-ed .
Jayapal ’ s legislation would cover a company ’ s payroll costs up to $ 100,000 per employee , while Hawley ’ s suggestion would cover @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the United States ’ median wage .
Support for such plans is spanning an increasingly broad range of lawmakers .
“ Bernie , Doug , and I represent the breadth of the Democratic Party ’ s thinking on this , ” Warner said .
These ideas are picking up steam as lawmakers discuss what should be included in the next economic stimulus package from Congress , which may not be approved until May or later .
Given the overwhelming demand for unemployment insurance and small-business loans that ’ s been observed in recent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like this as increasingly necessary to reduce layoffs and relieve some of the pressure on an already overburdened unemployment system .
This bill intends to keep workers employed so businesses can resume their operations more quickly once the economy is up and running again : Companies interested in receiving these funds would have to maintain worker pay and benefits and offer to bring back those they have laid off .
“ We need some simplicity and efficiency , ” Sanders told Vox .
“ If I lost my job and I ’ m @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I can ’ t make that connection , because they are overwhelmed.
” What the bill would do and how it ’ s different from other proposals The legislation would provide businesses of all sizes with grants that cover part of workers ’ salaries and some operational costs for up to six months .
The proposal is inspired in part by a provision in the CARES Act , which helps guarantee paychecks for airline workers through September .
These grants are specifically intended to cover up to $ 90,000 in wages for every @ @ @ @ @ @ @ furloughed by a business ; they could also include up to 20 percent of revenue to be used for operational costs like utilities and rent .
The monthly payroll costs would be calculated using a monthly average between January 2018 and February 2019 , depending on whether a business operates seasonally .
There are some eligibility restrictions , however .
To ensure that this funding goes to the businesses that need it most , companies that currently have 18 months of average payroll on hand in cash would be barred from receiving these @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from the Payroll Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program would also be ineligible , unless the money they were getting from either of those programs ran out .
Businesses would be able to demonstrate their need for the program by showing documentation of month-over-month revenue losses : The senators ’ white paper doesn ’ t yet specify exactly what time frame would be used for these losses , but the program would likely use numbers from January through March 2020 , with an adjustment for seasonal businesses , according to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be doled out via a partnership between the Treasury Department and the IRS .
Some of the delivery mechanisms the proposal suggests are payroll processors , which could get the money to businesses more quickly , or a direct bank deposit from the IRS straight to companies .
Using these processors could eliminate the backlog that businesses have experienced with other programs like the Paycheck Protection Program .
There are some slight differences between this plan and Jayapal ’ s , which is a bit more generous .
Hers would cover up to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Warner notes that the decision to focus on furloughed or laid-off workers is to address clear gaps that companies are facing .
“ If a business has lost 50 percent of their revenues and they have 50 percent of their revenues coming in , and that 50 percent is letting them pay their workforce , you don ’ t want to overly subsidize that ongoing operation , ” he says .
Both Jayapal and the senators say they ’ ve been in touch about working together on their respective proposals .
Other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the UK have implemented some form of a paycheck guarantee program to reduce unemployment .
In mid-March , Denmark implemented a program similar to both Jayapal and the senators ’ bill , with the government covering 75 percent of workers ’ salaries that companies pay out , up to a certain amount .
The investment in such a program is massive : The program , by one estimate from the Atlantic , will cost as much as 13 percent of Denmark ’ s national economy .
Across Germany , Denmark , and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ much lower than it is in the US .
The Senate bill ’ s sponsors argue that this program could potentially cost less than other stimulus programs .
“ We can make the case that this is probably costing the government less than some of the other proposals thus far , ” says Sanders .
Warner noted , too , that the cost of the CARES package along with recent measures taken by the Federal Reserve could be well over $ 6 trillion .
He suggested that the Paycheck Security Act would not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weeks , a staggering 22 million people have filed for unemployment .
To combat the scale of the economic crisis the country is experiencing , the senators argue that lawmakers need to be thinking more expansively than they otherwise might .
“ I think the challenge is also going to be a recognition from a lot of folks that we simply can ’ t flip a switch and turn the economy back on , ” Jones said .
When asked about potential Republican backing , Jayapal and Warner were optimistic .
“ This @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be creative , ” Warner told Vox , adding that discussion about both the UK and German programs came up during negotiations about the CARES Act .
“ The idea that was bipartisan in the Paycheck Protection Program is that we need to keep workers on paychecks , ” Jayapal noted , adding that this common thread could boost support for both bills .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today @

Support for a once-radical idea — the government funding of company payrolls — is growing in Congress, as the legislative body scrambles to respond to the coronavirus pandemic and the massive economic fallout that’s resulted.
The newest proposal on the subject, the Paycheck Security Act, comes from Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Mark Warner (D-VA), Doug Jones (D-AL), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT). Their bill, which was shared exclusively with Vox, would fund a portion of a company’s payroll costs, up to $90,000 per worker who has been laid off or furloughed, if a business can demonstrate that it has suffered a 20 percent month-over-month drop in revenue.
The thinking behind the legislation is similar to that of a bill introduced by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) last week and an idea put forth by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) in a Washington Post op-ed. Jayapal’s legislation would cover a company’s payroll costs up to $100,000 per employee, while Hawley’s suggestion would cover 80 percent of wages, up to the United States’ median wage. Support for such plans is spanning an increasingly broad range of lawmakers.
“Bernie, Doug, and I represent the breadth of the Democratic Party’s thinking on this,” Warner said.
These ideas are picking up steam as lawmakers discuss what should be included in the next economic stimulus package from Congress, which may not be approved until May or later. Given the overwhelming demand for unemployment insurance and small-business loans that’s been observed in recent weeks, lawmakers see a comprehensive effort like this as increasingly necessary to reduce layoffs and relieve some of the pressure on an already overburdened unemployment system.
This bill intends to keep workers employed so businesses can resume their operations more quickly once the economy is up and running again: Companies interested in receiving these funds would have to maintain worker pay and benefits and offer to bring back those they have laid off.
“We need some simplicity and efficiency,” Sanders told Vox. “If I lost my job and I’m trying to get through to unemployment, I can’t make that connection, because they are overwhelmed.”
What the bill would do and how it’s different from other proposals
The legislation would provide businesses of all sizes with grants that cover part of workers’ salaries and some operational costs for up to six months. The proposal is inspired in part by a provision in the CARES Act, which helps guarantee paychecks for airline workers through September.
These grants are specifically intended to cover up to $90,000 in wages for every worker who has been laid off or furloughed by a business; they could also include up to 20 percent of revenue to be used for operational costs like utilities and rent. The monthly payroll costs would be calculated using a monthly average between January 2018 and February 2019, depending on whether a business operates seasonally.
There are some eligibility restrictions, however. To ensure that this funding goes to the businesses that need it most, companies that currently have 18 months of average payroll on hand in cash would be barred from receiving these grants. Those that are receiving funding from the Payroll Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program would also be ineligible, unless the money they were getting from either of those programs ran out.
Businesses would be able to demonstrate their need for the program by showing documentation of month-over-month revenue losses. The senators’ white paper doesn’t yet specify exactly what time frame would be used for these losses, but the program would likely use numbers from January to March 2020, with an adjustment for seasonal businesses, according to a Warner spokesperson.
The grants would be doled out via a partnership between the Treasury Department and the IRS. Some of the delivery mechanisms the proposal suggests are payroll processors, which could get the money to businesses more quickly, or a direct bank deposit from the IRS straight to companies.
Using these processors could eliminate the backlog businesses have experienced with other programs like the Paycheck Protection Program.
There are some slight differences between this plan and Jayapal’s, which is a bit more generous. Hers would cover up to $100,000 per worker, for example.
Warner notes that the decision to focus on furloughed or laid-off workers is to address clear gaps that companies are facing.
“If a business has lost 50 percent of their revenues and they have 50 percent of their revenues coming in, and that 50 percent is letting them pay their workforce, you don’t want to overly subsidize that ongoing operation,” he says.
Both Jayapal and the senators say they’ve been in touch about working together on their respective proposals.
European countries have implemented similar programs to reduce unemployment
Other countries including Germany, Denmark, and the United Kingdom have implemented some form of a paycheck guarantee program to reduce unemployment.
In mid-March, Denmark implemented a program similar to both Jayapal and the senators’ bill, with the government covering 75 percent of workers’ salaries that companies pay out, up to a certain amount. The investment in such a program is massive: The program, by one estimate from the Atlantic, will cost as much as 13 percent of Denmark’s national economy. Across Germany, Denmark, and the UK, however, unemployment has stayed much lower than it is in the US.
The Senate bill’s sponsors argue that this program could potentially cost less than other stimulus programs.
“We can make the case that this is probably costing the government less than some of the other proposals thus far,” says Sanders. Warner noted, too, that the cost of the CARES package along with recent measures taken by the Federal Reserve could be well over $6 trillion. He suggested that the Paycheck Security Act would not surpass that.
In the past four weeks, a staggering 22 million people have filed for unemployment. To combat the scale of the economic crisis the country is experiencing, the senators argue that lawmakers need to be thinking more expansively than they otherwise might.
“I think the challenge is also going to be a recognition from a lot of folks that we simply can’t flip a switch and turn the economy back on,” Jones said.
When asked about potential Republican backing, Jayapal and Warner were optimistic. “This is a time for all of us to be creative,” Warner told Vox, adding that discussion about both the UK and German programs came up during negotiations about the CARES Act.
“The idea that was bipartisan in the Paycheck Protection Program is that we need to keep workers on paychecks,” Jayapal noted, adding that this common thread could boost support for both bills.