vox--2020-04-22--Podcasts like The Thing About Pam are why I’ll never get tired of true crime

I know some of you are over the true crime podcast craze , and I get it .
There ’ s a limit to how much blood , gore , and real-life violence many people can ingest as entertainment .
But even if you ’ ve sworn off true crime forever , the story of the 2011 murder of Betsy Faria and its spiral of ensuing real-life plot twists , culminating in the 2016 murder of Louis Gumpenberger , is too outrageous to sleep on .
It ’ s one of the wildest true crime stories in recent memory .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ subject of its own true crime podcast series , The Thing About Pam , created by NBC ’ s long-running true crime news program Dateline .
Dateline covered the Betsy Faria case for years and chose the story to kick off its foray into the narrative podcast genre .
From the opening moments , Dateline host Keith Morrison gently informs the listeners that this will be “ a strange story ” — a tale of crime in small-town Missouri and an ostensibly open-and-shut murder case that devolves into an infuriatingly preventable string of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s six episodes , the story frequently comes across as if it were dartboarded from multiple seasons of Law & Order , rather than taken from a single real-life case .
Yet for all of its astounding components , the story of Betsy Faria ’ s murderer becomes epic in its survey of human nature .
We see the individual flaws that lead to an entire process of justice being completely derailed , as detectives develop tunnel vision , prosecutors and judges pursue their own agendas , and a whole police force @ @ @ @ @ @ @ right under its nose .
The case that starts with Betsy Faria ’ s murder is completely bonkers .
The interrelated crimes that begin , more or less , with Betsy Faria ’ s murder are completely and utterly batshit .
In the town of Troy , Missouri , unassuming housewife Betsy Faria is stabbed over 50 times in a savage Christmastime attack .
Then there ’ s a 911 call from her grieving husband , Russ , that stretches the listeners ’ suspension of disbelief as his discovery of her body sends @ @ @ @ @ @ @ grief .
Despite having an ironclad alibi that should have made it all but impossible for him to commit the murder , Russ rapidly falls prey to detectives who set out to discredit him rather than investigating other suspects or a far more obvious trail of evidence .
Thanks to a determined prosecutor who relies primarily on the testimony of a single witness and a judge who refuses to allow exculpatory evidence into the trial , a jury finds Russ guilty , and he ’ s given a life sentence .
Improbably , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the start of the story , which goes on to involve all of the following : elaborate schemes to defraud multiple cancer patients ; a ( probably fake ) lesbian love affair ; a ( probably fake ) letter from the murder victim herself ; a pair of spurned children ; a mysterious fall from a balcony ; a retrial ; a likely serial killer ; identity theft ; and a bonkers staged murder scene , which unwittingly turned a crew of Dateline journalists into participants in a case they ’ d spend @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as Russ fights his conviction , we , as listeners , gradually realize that the real murderer has all but been given a thumbs up by the justice system , and they ’ ve been able to kill and kill again .
Both the judge and prosecutor in Russ Faria ’ s trial were later voted out of office , in large part due to their unpopular handling of this case .
And on March 30 , 2020 , after the roller coaster ride of events narrated in The Thing About Pam , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ himself for $ 2 million in a wrongful arrest settlement .
Eventually , most of this story ’ s players received their share of justice , which makes this story , as frustrating as it is , a deeply cathartic one .
But all of these admissions were as hard-won as they were preventable in the first place — and they came at the cost of at least one , and very likely two , additional senseless murders .
This is a story that ’ s hard to narrate .
The Thing About @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it full justice , you might want more .
The Thing About Pam , while gripping , isn ’ t a perfect treatment of the Betsy Faria and Louis Gumpenberger cases .
It can ’ t be , because Dateline itself , through no fault of its own , is very close to the story .
It ’ s also pretty coy about its own closeness , in its particular Dateline way .
If you ’ re a fan of the TV show , then you already know that Morrison ’ s cozy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ true crime sound like homespun Americana .
That sensibility fits this case , with its small-town criminals with giant ambitions , petty egos , and gossipy secrets , particularly well .
But because this case has so many tendrils , it doesn ’ t necessarily lend itself to emphasizing the twists and turns of the story .
Indeed , it ’ s hard to know where in the story to even start — should one begin with the suspicious 911 call that kicked everything off in 2011 or the even more suspicious 911 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s final desperate gambit in 2016 ?
Different podcasts covering the case have started in different places , and each gives the audience a very different perspective on where the case is going .
I ’ ve been obsessed with the story disclosed in The Thing About Pam for years ; I ’ ve read every article and listened to every true crime podcast I can find about this case , in part because it ’ s difficult to get a truly complete version of it anywhere .
Jeannette Cooperman ’ s 2017 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ story in detail .
Popular true crime podcast Generation Why devoted one perfect episode to the case in 2017 , and if you ’ d rather have the full story in digestible , easily rage-inducing form , there ’ s no better place to start than there .
If you ’ d rather have a few more side details , The Evidence Locker also did a great , thorough episode on the case , and the podcast In Sight ( now Crimelines ) did an episode with a few details not covered elsewhere @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s consternating , disputed alibi evidence .
It ’ s also important to know that this is a story that ’ s still ongoing .
Following Russ Faria ’ s overturned conviction and eventual acquittal , in a second 2015 trial , his wife ’ s murder is now still technically unsolved .
The current local prosecutor is trying to change that , and new documents and information about the case are still being released .
It all makes for a bizarre , engrossing rabbit hole that ’ s alternately enraging and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of just how capricious the quest for justice can be and just how easily one crafty villain can manipulate the entire system to work in their favor .
One Good Thing is Vox ’ s recommendations feature .
In each edition , find one more thing from the world of culture that we highly recommend .
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 .

I know some of you are over the true crime podcast craze, and I get it. There’s a limit to how much blood, gore, and real-life violence many people can ingest as entertainment.
But even if you’ve sworn off true crime forever, the story of the 2011 murder of Betsy Faria and its spiral of ensuing real-life plot twists, culminating in the 2016 murder of Louis Gumpenberger, is too outrageous to sleep on.
It’s one of the wildest true crime stories in recent memory. In October 2019, it became the subject of its own true crime podcast series, The Thing About Pam, created by NBC’s long-running true crime news program Dateline.
Dateline covered the Betsy Faria case for years and chose the story to kick off its foray into the narrative podcast genre. From the opening moments, Dateline host Keith Morrison gently informs the listeners that this will be “a strange story”— a tale of crime in small-town Missouri and an ostensibly open-and-shut murder case that devolves into an infuriatingly preventable string of tragedies.
Throughout The Thing About Pam’s six episodes, the story frequently comes across as if it were dartboarded from multiple seasons of Law & Order, rather than taken from a single real-life case. Yet for all of its astounding components, the story of Betsy Faria’s murderer becomes epic in its survey of human nature. We see the individual flaws that lead to an entire process of justice being completely derailed, as detectives develop tunnel vision, prosecutors and judges pursue their own agendas, and a whole police force collectively refuses to see a killer operating right under its nose.
The case that starts with Betsy Faria’s murder is completely bonkers.
The interrelated crimes that begin, more or less, with Betsy Faria’s murder are completely and utterly batshit. In the town of Troy, Missouri, unassuming housewife Betsy Faria is stabbed over 50 times in a savage Christmastime attack. Then there’s a 911 call from her grieving husband, Russ, that stretches the listeners’ suspension of disbelief as his discovery of her body sends him into a dubiously sincere paroxysm of grief.
Despite having an ironclad alibi that should have made it all but impossible for him to commit the murder, Russ rapidly falls prey to detectives who set out to discredit him rather than investigating other suspects or a far more obvious trail of evidence. Thanks to a determined prosecutor who relies primarily on the testimony of a single witness and a judge who refuses to allow exculpatory evidence into the trial, a jury finds Russ guilty, and he’s given a life sentence.
Improbably, Russ Faria’s sentence is just the start of the story, which goes on to involve all of the following: elaborate schemes to defraud multiple cancer patients; a (probably fake) lesbian love affair; a (probably fake) letter from the murder victim herself; a pair of spurned children; a mysterious fall from a balcony; a retrial; a likely serial killer; identity theft; and a bonkers staged murder scene, which unwittingly turned a crew of Dateline journalists into participants in a case they’d spend years covering.
Through it all, as Russ fights his conviction, we, as listeners, gradually realize that the real murderer has all but been given a thumbs up by the justice system, and they’ve been able to kill and kill again. Both the judge and prosecutor in Russ Faria’s trial were later voted out of office, in large part due to their unpopular handling of this case. And on March 30, 2020, after the roller coaster ride of events narrated in The Thing About Pam, the police department settled with Russ Faria himself for $2 million in a wrongful arrest settlement. Eventually, most of this story’s players received their share of justice, which makes this story, as frustrating as it is, a deeply cathartic one.
But all of these admissions were as hard-won as they were preventable in the first place — and they came at the cost of at least one, and very likely two, additional senseless murders.
This is a story that’s hard to narrate. The Thing About Pam comes close, but to do it full justice, you might want more.
The Thing About Pam, while gripping, isn’t a perfect treatment of the Betsy Faria and Louis Gumpenberger cases. It can’t be, because Dateline itself, through no fault of its own, is very close to the story. It’s also pretty coy about its own closeness, in its particular Dateline way. If you’re a fan of the TV show, then you already know that Morrison’s cozy, Keillor-esque narration tends to make grisly true crime sound like homespun Americana. That sensibility fits this case, with its small-town criminals with giant ambitions, petty egos, and gossipy secrets, particularly well.
But because this case has so many tendrils, it doesn’t necessarily lend itself to emphasizing the twists and turns of the story. Indeed, it’s hard to know where in the story to even start — should one begin with the suspicious 911 call that kicked everything off in 2011 or the even more suspicious 911 call that ended the murder suspect’s final desperate gambit in 2016? Different podcasts covering the case have started in different places, and each gives the audience a very different perspective on where the case is going.
I’ve been obsessed with the story disclosed in The Thing About Pam for years; I’ve read every article and listened to every true crime podcast I can find about this case, in part because it’s difficult to get a truly complete version of it anywhere. Jeannette Cooperman’s 2017 article for St. Louis magazine covered the story in detail. Popular true crime podcast Generation Why devoted one perfect episode to the case in 2017, and if you’d rather have the full story in digestible, easily rage-inducing form, there’s no better place to start than there. If you’d rather have a few more side details, The Evidence Locker also did a great, thorough episode on the case, and the podcast In Sight (now Crimelines) did an episode with a few details not covered elsewhere, including a meticulous rundown of Russ’s consternating, disputed alibi evidence.
It’s also important to know that this is a story that’s still ongoing. Following Russ Faria’s overturned conviction and eventual acquittal, in a second 2015 trial, his wife’s murder is now still technically unsolved. The current local prosecutor is trying to change that, and new documents and information about the case are still being released.
It all makes for a bizarre, engrossing rabbit hole that’s alternately enraging and perversely satisfying in turn — a reminder of just how capricious the quest for justice can be and just how easily one crafty villain can manipulate the entire system to work in their favor.
One Good Thing is Vox’s recommendations feature. In each edition, find one more thing from the world of culture that we highly recommend.


vox--2020-04-22--The stark differences in countries’ coronavirus death rates, explained

The race to track and slow the coronavirus pandemic has been very much a numbers game .
While we watch the number of cases — and deaths — climb , experts also are closely eyeing what they call the case fatality rate ( CFR ) .
This tells the proportion of people who get Covid-19 and ultimately die from the illness , and it ’ s a number that has been varying widely from country to country .
Some countries , such as Germany , have a fatality rate of approximately 3 percent of confirmed cases , whereas Italy ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Even within the US , large differences have emerged : As of April 20 , Michigan had reported a CFR of 7.6 percent , compared to Oregon ’ s 3.8 percent .
Since scientists are pretty sure the virus isn ’ t mutating very quickly , the pathogen itself shouldn ’ t be more deadly in one place than another .
So why the variation ?
Figuring out what is driving these disparate numbers reveals differences not just in population demographics but also in health care capacity and government response .
Understanding @ @ @ @ @ @ @ around the world — especially for the most vulnerable countries and individuals .
Why might fatality rates be so radically different ?
Before diving into the details from different countries , it ’ s worth looking at some of the broad reasons why death rates can look so starkly different from place to place .
First , we know that there are big differences in the risk the virus poses to different age groups .
For this coronavirus , SARS-CoV-2 , older individuals are far more likely to become critically ill or die @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in The Lancet Infectious Diseases , researchers concluded , when looking at data from China and elsewhere , that people between the ages of 40 and 49 have an estimated CFR of about 0.4 percent ; for those 80 and older , it ’ s 13.4 percent .
This gulf of survivability is already playing out in some countries with older populations , such as Italy .
Additionally , Covid-19 has been demonstrably deadlier for those with existing health conditions , including lung disease ( often caused by smoking ) , cardiovascular disease @ @ @ @ @ @ @ failure , and liver disease .
So countries — or regions — with less healthy populations might also be seeing big differences in the rates at which people are dying from the illness .
Beyond the varying impacts of the illness itself , there are lots of variables in how numbers are being gathered and reported .
Perhaps the biggest factor here is testing .
When experts calculate a basic fatality rate , it can be as simple as dividing the number of deaths by the number of confirmed cases ( although — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ later — it really shouldn ’ t be ) .
Since the international spread of the novel coronavirus , countries have varied widely in their ability and willingness to roll out testing .
So that means the denominator ( the number of cases ) can be closer or further from an accurate count of how many people actually have the virus .
The larger the percentage of a population that has been tested , the more complete picture we will get of the virus ’ s actual fatality rate there .
The other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sampling bias .
Tests that are available are usually saved for the sickest and riskiest cases .
This pushes the fatality rate higher than it actually is because the testing is more likely to omit mild or asymptomatic cases and instead overrepresents those who are more likely to die .
So , as testing finally becomes more widespread in various countries , their fatality rates will drop .
That is no reason for optimism , as the authors of the study in The Lancet note .
The researchers offer an overall CFR for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their estimates for lack of testing and other factors , including potential censorship .
This number , they noted , is still “ substantially higher than for recent influenza pandemics ( e.g .
H1N1 influenza in 2009 ) ” — “ swine flu ” — which had a case fatality rate of 0.1 percent .
Their estimated CFR , “ combined with likely infection attack rates ( around 50-80 percent ) , show [ s ] that even the most advanced health-care systems are likely to become overwhelmed.
” It is clear that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ flu .
Another way to look at death rates — in the absence of widespread testing — is to compare the number of Covid-19 deaths to a country ’ s total population , which is what researchers have done here .
In another effort to make up for incomplete testing ( and possibly incomplete reporting ) , researchers are attempting to estimate what percentage of actual cases have been reported ( as of a couple weeks ago ) for each country .
The other factors likely impacting the vastly different fatality rates include @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its health care capacity ) , its organization ( such as how easily it can institute effective , widespread public health measures ) , and how forthcoming it is with data .
We will likely see other factors emerge as the pandemic rages on and more data comes in .
But here ’ s what we know so far about some of the key countries and their fatality rates for Covid-19 based on the number of confirmed cases .
For each country , we are using April 20 data from the University of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which has been updating its statistics on dozens of countries ’ fatality rates daily .
You can find their full list of countries , which includes data on how confident they are in their estimates , here .
Early on in any pandemic of a potentially fatal infectious disease , the death rate is going to be high for numerous reasons , including : health workers are not looking for the new disease and will miss cases early in their progression ; there aren ’ t established treatment protocols for the illness @ @ @ @ @ @ @ know how it is spread ( and , thus , how best to contain it ) .
In the first few dozen patients in China , all of whom were already hospitalized , the CFR was 15 percent , a paper in The Lancet noted .
Although the rate has pushed down over subsequent weeks , as the origin of the outbreak , China ’ s relatively high overall rate is not a surprise .
Even though the first reported Covid-19 death occurred there January 11 , experts still do not agree on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ should be .
One group of researchers reported in Nature Medicine that , as of the start of March , the fatality figure there should be 1.4 percent of symptomatic cases .
Another team , writing in The Lancet , estimated it should be 5.6 percent .
These sizable differences come from balancing considerations of estimating the capacity of health care systems to identify cases and deaths , determining the ability to approximate actual rates of infection ( including those not tested ) , and accounting for the time delay between onset of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with current infections might be misleading because of the two- to eight-week lag from early symptoms to death ) , among other factors .
Clearly , finding the CFR is not as easy as an exercise in long division .
China ’ s governmental response , facilitated by being relatively centralized , likely played a large role in eventually slowing the outbreak — and lowering the fatality rate — there .
As more people were able to be tested and the hotspot of Wuhan was put on lockdown , fewer cases emerged , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ earlier .
New evidence , though , also reveals that China has underreported the number of cases and deaths from Covid-19 .
Italy currently has the highest fatality rate for Covid-19 of any country with a major outbreak .
Why ?
One factor in this , experts have suggested , is the relatively older population of the country .
The novel coronavirus is considerably more fatal with each passing decade of life .
As a viewpoint in JAMA noted , those 60 and older in Italy have a 3.5 percent chance of dying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and up face a 20.2 percent chance .
And Italy has one of the oldest populations in the world .
According to the World Bank , nearly a quarter of the country ’ s population is 65 or older , a higher percentage than any other country except for Japan .
( There are also numerous other factors , including a cultural tradition of physical closeness , that could be contributing to Italy ’ s overwhelming number of cases and high death rate , as this piece from The Conversation points out .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ explain the country ’ s high number .
( As we ’ ll see below , Germany , which also has a fairly old population , has a relatively low Covid-19 fatality rate . )
Some of Italy ’ s dire death rate might be due to how slow it was to do widespread testing .
Italy has now performed a lot of tests — about 22 per 1,000 people as of April 20 ( compared to about 11 per 1,000 in the US ) .
But it was , compared to countries @ @ @ @ @ @ @ slow in the early stages of its outbreak to make large numbers of tests available , allowing the virus to spread undetected for crucial periods of days and weeks while people went about their daily lives , unaware that a crisis was looming .
Experts are not sure why Germany has managed to maintain a relatively low fatality rate for Covid-19 .
As HJ Mai reported in Vox , part of it does likely have to do with their aggressive early testing : Another benefit of the widespread early testing is that they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of cases — adding to the denominator — many of which were milder and less likely to lead to a death .
As Mai wrote , “ The majority of cases in Germany have been detected in people between the ages of 35 and 59 .
That most coronavirus cases in Germany are being detected in an age demographic that is not considered part of the high-risk population could be a further contributing factor ” to the low fatality rate .
But there is another question of timing here , and that is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Germany ’ s outbreak began later than Italy ’ s , with Italy topping 1,000 cases by March 1 , when Germany still was reporting just slightly over 100 .
And with the current estimates suggesting Covid-19 deaths occurring up to eight weeks after the onset of symptoms , as Mai notes , “ That means there ’ s a chance Germany and other nations in a similar stage of the outbreak could soon see a spike in deaths.
” Indeed , their fatality rate has been climbing slowly over the past @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the beginning of April .
Widespread and early testing , however , is not all that it takes to keep infection and death rates low .
The results of those tests also need to be swiftly acted upon to have the most benefit .
South Korea has been largely lauded for its rapid , robust , and coordinated response to its outbreak .
In addition to having tested about 3 people per thousand by March 5 ( which was days before the US even started testing anyone in the general population ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tests to use right away , an article in Science explained .
Positive cases were isolated .
Additionally , that person ’ s contacts were traced , and they were themselves considered potential cases and asked to quarantine at home , as NPR reported .
New daily confirmed cases there spiked to their highest level March 1 — at 730 per day — and then dropped off , reaching an average of just 67 new cases per day by April 1 .
( By comparison , the US had 777 reported new cases @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , as of April 15 , had more than 26,500 new cases per day . )
To facilitate this massive undertaking , the country used GPS data from people ’ s phones ( because your phone is better at remembering where you were and who you were near than you are ) .
The approach raises privacy concerns , as Science pointed out , but it is also credited with helping to sharply curtail the country ’ s outbreak .
Japan , a country with more than 35.8 million people 65 or older @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The government has lagged on testing as well as on instituting strict social distancing guidelines .
As of late March , many shopping malls in Tokyo were still open and busy .
And as of April 15 , the country had performed just about 1 test per thousand people ( which pales in comparison to even the paltry efforts of the US ’ s 10 tests per thousand people by the same date ) .
As Eric Margolis reported for Vox , these facts do not bode well : What has people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ constant numbers of reported Covid-19-related deaths , despite rising case numbers .
( There have been some questions as to whether Japan is thoroughly testing those with pneumonia , a common outcome and cause of death for severe Covid-19 cases . )
Some attribute this to effective contact tracing that was done of cases early on in the outbreak or the country ’ s strong health care and elder care systems , Margolis noted .
Time — and increased testing — will tell whether Japan has efficiently controlled the virus and deaths as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Or if it was a case of delayed detection and containment leading to a much larger disease burden .
Where does the US stack up in all of this ?
Given that testing rates have been exceedingly low especially early on , as in Italy , undetected cases continued to spread the virus .
As Dylan Scott and Rani Molla of Vox have written , case numbers in the US were more in line with Italy and Iran in mid-March , and “ far outpaced places like Hong Kong and Singapore , where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ US is now on an even sharper trajectory of new cases than Italy or Iran .
And that means a spike in deaths may well be coming next .
That is one of the other factors that can lead to a higher CFR : a sudden jump in the number of severe cases .
When that happens , it “ adds to the strain on the healthcare system and can overwhelm its medical resources , ” wrote a team of researchers in The Lancet .
That can result in not being able to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the call to “ flatten the curve.
” ) The US might be looking at this scenario in many places .
New York City is already running out of hospital beds , with the projected peak outbreak there predicted to still be weeks away .
And other cities and towns might face similar fates .
Within the US , too , the rates of mortality are varying widely .
As of April 20 , Michigan had a CFR of 7.6 percent — compared to Oregon ’ s 3.8 percent .
The reasons for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be determined , but they will likely end up including the same factors that lead to countries ’ different rates , such as the area ’ s healthcare resources and containment policies as well as the overall age and health of the population .
( Current counts for states ’ case and fatality numbers can be found here . )
What experts are looking out for next It will be some time before testing catches up and we have firmer numbers for countries ’ actual CFRs .
Even when that happens , there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
As researchers noted in a March 20 Science report , “ The patchwork reflects different phases of the epidemic , as well as differences in resources , cultures , governments and laws.
” As we learn more about the fatality rates for different populations of people , though , it will hopefully help governments make the best decisions about public health policies — as well as the best allocation of resources to protect and treat the most vulnerable .
A country ’ s response , so far , appears to have among @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an outbreak and the subsequent number of deaths , as demonstrated by South Korea ’ s apparent success ( which was also achieved without broadly shuttering daily life ) .
And as Vox ’ s Alex Ward writes : “ Saving lives is ... about how quickly , thoroughly , and effectively the government responds to the brewing crisis .
Any delay , it seems , is very costly.
” One of the big questions that remains to be answered is how the overlapping factors of a country ’ s age demographics and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rate .
Going off of median age or the proportion of the population 65 or older may or may not end up being the next strongest predictor .
Countries with older populations tend , on the whole , to be wealthier and healthier , with better health and social infrastructures to begin with ( for example , the notoriously rich country of Monaco boasts the highest media age : 55 ) .
Countries with younger populations , on the other hand , are often places where health care and other resources are scarcer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to live to late adulthood ( see Niger as the country with the youngest median age , at 14 ; and consider that in Uganda , only 2 percent of the population is over 65 ) .
So , as the Covid-19 pandemic continues its global spread , experts will be closely watching not just countries with a large proportion of octogenarians but also those with higher poverty rates and already-stressed systems .
These countries might also be more likely to lag behind in test availability , logistics , and reporting , so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be delayed or perhaps never be collected to know the true numbers of those infected or who perish from the illness .
But even in the US , as the Atlantic reported , we might never know the true number of deaths this coronavirus causes .
Because how we determine the ultimate cause of someone ’ s death is often not clear cut .
Will we ever know the pure case fatality rate of SARS-CoV-2 ?
Some scientists are looking to the natural experiment that took place aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a month .
During that time , about 19 percent of the ship ’ s passengers and crew fell ill and were confirmed to have Covid-19 .
Of those 705 people with the virus , seven died , providing a CFR in a well-tested group of people of 0.99 percent .
The cruise ship demographic did skew older , so , as researchers pointed out in The Lancet , “ the CFR in a healthy , younger population could be lower.
” Whatever they end up being , the numbers from this pandemic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ come .
As in a laboratory experiment where researchers set up different versions of the same test , changing this variable or that , the world ’ s countries are now part of this global test case .
With hindsight and thorough analysis , we will eventually be able to more carefully plot out steps and missteps and what combinations of factors from these experiments came to mean for different populations .
And hopefully , with that knowledge , we will be able to better head off the next pandemic threat , which @ @ @ @ @ @

The race to track and slow the coronavirus pandemic has been very much a numbers game.
While we watch the number of cases — and deaths — climb, experts also are closely eyeing what they call the case fatality rate (CFR). This tells the proportion of people who have been confirmed as having Covid-19 and ultimately die from the illness, and it’s a number that has been varying widely from country to country.
Some countries, such as Germany, have a fatality rate of approximately 3 percent of confirmed cases, whereas Italy’s rate has climbed above 13 percent. Even within the US, large differences have emerged: As of April 20, Michigan had reported a CFR of 7.6 percent, compared to Oregon’s 3.8 percent.
Since scientists are pretty sure the virus isn’t mutating very quickly, the pathogen itself shouldn’t be more deadly in one place than another. So why the variation?
Figuring out what is driving these disparate numbers reveals differences not just in population demographics but also in health care capacity and government response. Understanding CFRs might also help us slow deaths around the world — especially for the most vulnerable countries and individuals.
Why might fatality rates be so radically different?
Before diving into the details from different countries, it’s worth looking at some of the broad reasons why death rates can look so starkly different from place to place.
First, we know that there are big differences in the risk the virus poses to different age groups. For this coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, older individuals are far more likely to become critically ill or die from the disease. In a paper in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, researchers concluded, when looking at data from China and elsewhere, that people between the ages of 40 and 49 have an estimated CFR of about 0.4 percent; for those 80 and older, it’s 13.4 percent. This gulf of survivability is already playing out in some countries with older populations, such as Italy.
Additionally, Covid-19 has been demonstrably deadlier for those with existing health conditions, including lung disease (often caused by smoking), cardiovascular disease, severe obesity, diabetes, kidney failure, and liver disease. So countries — or regions — with less healthy populations might also be seeing big differences in the rates at which people are dying from the illness.
Beyond the varying impacts of the illness itself, there are lots of variables in how numbers are being gathered and reported. Perhaps the biggest factor here is testing. When experts calculate a basic fatality rate, it can be as simple as dividing the number of deaths by the number of confirmed cases (although — and we’ll get to this later — it really shouldn’t be).
Since the international spread of the novel coronavirus, countries have varied widely in their ability and willingness to roll out testing. So that means the denominator (the number of cases) can be closer or further from an accurate count of how many people actually have the virus. The larger the percentage of a population that has been tested, the more complete picture we will get of the virus’s actual fatality rate there.
The other issue with the poor testing rates is sampling bias. Tests that are available are usually saved for the sickest and riskiest cases. This pushes the fatality rate higher than it actually is because the testing is more likely to omit mild or asymptomatic cases and instead overrepresents those who are more likely to die. So, as testing becomes more widespread in various countries, their fatality rates will drop.
That is no reason for optimism, as the authors of the study in The Lancet note. The researchers offer an overall CFR for Covid-19 at 1.38 percent, which reflects their estimates for lack of testing and other factors, including potential censorship. This number, they noted, is still “substantially higher than for recent influenza pandemics (e.g. H1N1 influenza in 2009)” — “swine flu” — which had a case fatality rate of 0.1 percent. Their estimated CFR, “combined with likely infection attack rates (around 50-80 percent), show[s] that even the most advanced health-care systems are likely to become overwhelmed.” It is clear that this is far worse than the seasonal flu.
Another way to look at death rates — in the absence of widespread testing — is to compare the number of Covid-19 deaths to a country’s total population, which is what researchers have done here.
In another effort to make up for incomplete testing (and possibly incomplete reporting), researchers are attempting to estimate what percentage of actual cases have been reported (as of a couple weeks ago) for each country.
The other factors likely impacting the vastly different fatality rates include a country’s resources (particularly its health care capacity), its organization (such as how easily it can institute effective, widespread public health measures), and how forthcoming it is with data.
We will likely see other factors emerge as the pandemic rages on and more data comes in. But here’s what we know so far about some of the key countries and their fatality rates for Covid-19 based on the number of confirmed cases.
For each country, we are using April 20 data from the University of Oxford’s Center for Evidence-Based Medicine, which has been updating its statistics on dozens of countries’ fatality rates daily. You can find their full list of countries, which includes data on how confident they are in their estimates, here.
China
Estimated CFR: 5.6 percent
Early on in any pandemic of a potentially fatal infectious disease, the death rate is going to be high for numerous reasons, including: health workers are not looking for the new disease and will miss cases early in their progression; there aren’t established treatment protocols for the illness; and people don’t yet know how it is spread (and, thus, how best to contain it).
In the first few dozen patients in China, all of whom were already hospitalized, the CFR was 15 percent, a paper in The Lancet noted. Although the rate has pushed down over subsequent weeks, as the origin of the outbreak, China’s relatively high overall rate is not a surprise.
Even though the first reported Covid-19 death occurred there January 11, experts still do not agree on what the country’s actual CFR should be. One group of researchers reported in Nature Medicine that, as of the start of March, the fatality figure there should be 1.4 percent of symptomatic cases. Another team, writing in The Lancet, estimated it should be 5.6 percent.
These sizable differences come from balancing considerations of estimating the capacity of health care systems to identify cases and deaths, determining the ability to approximate actual rates of infection (including those not tested), and accounting for the time delay between onset of illness and death (tabulating current deaths with current infections might be misleading because of the two- to eight-week lag from early symptoms to death), among other factors. Clearly, finding the CFR is not as easy as an exercise in long division.
China’s governmental response, facilitated by being relatively centralized, likely played a large role in eventually slowing the outbreak — and lowering the fatality rate — there. As more people were able to be tested and the hotspot of Wuhan was put on lockdown, fewer cases emerged, and those that did could be detected earlier. New evidence, though, also reveals that China has underreported the number of cases and deaths from Covid-19.
Italy
Estimated CFR: 13.22 percent
Italy currently has the highest fatality rate for Covid-19 of any country with a major outbreak. Why? One factor in this, experts have suggested, is the relatively older population of the country. The novel coronavirus is considerably more fatal with each passing decade of life. As a March 23 viewpoint in JAMA noted, those 60 and older in Italy have a 3.5 percent chance of dying if they get Covid-19; those 80 and up face a 20.2 percent chance.
And Italy has one of the oldest populations in the world. According to the World Bank, nearly a quarter of the country’s population is 65 or older, a higher percentage than any other country except for Japan. (There are also numerous other factors, including a cultural tradition of physical closeness, that could be contributing to Italy’s overwhelming number of cases and high death rate, as this piece from The Conversation points out.)
But that doesn’t entirely explain the country’s high number. (As we’ll see below, Germany, which also has a fairly old population, has a relatively low Covid-19 fatality rate.) Some of Italy’s dire death rate might be due to how slow it was to do widespread testing.
Italy has now performed a lot of tests — about 22 per 1,000 people as of April 20 (compared to about 11 per 1,000 in the US). But it was, compared to countries like Germany and South Korea, relatively slow in the early stages of its outbreak to make large numbers of tests available, allowing the virus to spread undetected for crucial periods of days and weeks while people went about their daily lives, unaware that a crisis was looming.
Germany
Estimated CFR: 3.19 percent
Experts are not sure why Germany has managed to maintain a relatively low fatality rate for Covid-19.
As HJ Mai reported in Vox, part of it does likely have to do with their aggressive early testing:
The [country’s Robert Koch Institute] early on recommended broad testing to detect cases as soon as possible and to slow the outbreak. “This is probably why we started to see cases very early, also mild ones, which in other circumstances might have been missed,” RKI’s [deputy spokeswoman Marieke] Degen said. “If you start seeing deaths, it indicates that the virus has already been active in the community for some time.”
Another benefit of the widespread early testing is that they were able to locate a larger number of cases — adding to the denominator — many of which were milder and less likely to lead to a death. As Mai wrote, “The majority of cases in Germany have been detected in people between the ages of 35 and 59. That most coronavirus cases in Germany are being detected in an age demographic that is not considered part of the high-risk population could be a further contributing factor” to the low fatality rate.
But there is another question of timing here, and that is when a country’s outbreak started. Germany’s outbreak began later than Italy’s, with Italy topping 1,000 cases by March 1, when Germany still was reporting just slightly over 100. And with the current estimates suggesting Covid-19 deaths occurring up to eight weeks after the onset of symptoms, as Mai notes, “That means there’s a chance Germany and other nations in a similar stage of the outbreak could soon see a spike in deaths.” Indeed, their fatality rate has been climbing slowly over the past weeks, rising from about 1 percent at the beginning of April.
Related Why France has 4 times as many coronavirus deaths as Germany
South Korea
Estimated CFR: 2.21 percent
Widespread and early testing, however, is not all that it takes to keep infection and death rates low. The results of those tests also need to be swiftly acted upon to have the most benefit.
South Korea has been largely lauded for its rapid, robust, and coordinated response to its outbreak. In addition to having tested about 3 people per thousand by March 5 (which was days before the US even started testing anyone in the general population), they put the results of those tests to use right away, an article in Science explained. Positive cases were isolated. Additionally, that person’s contacts were traced, and they were themselves considered potential cases and asked to quarantine at home, as NPR reported.
New daily confirmed cases there spiked to their highest level March 1 — at 730 per day — and then dropped off, reaching an average of just 67 new cases per day by April 1. (By comparison, the US had 777 reported new cases per day on March 15 — and, as of April 15, had more than 26,500 new cases per day.)
To facilitate this massive undertaking, the country used GPS data from people’s phones (because your phone is better at remembering where you were and who you were near than you are). The approach raises privacy concerns, as Science pointed out, but it is also credited with helping to sharply curtail the country’s outbreak.
Japan
Estimated CFR: 2.19 percent
Japan, a country with more than 35.8 million people 65 or older, has many global health experts worried. The government has lagged on testing as well as on instituting strict social distancing guidelines. As of late March, many shopping malls in Tokyo were still open and busy. And as of April 15, the country had performed just about 1 test per thousand people (which pales in comparison to even the paltry efforts of the US’s 10 tests per thousand people by the same date).
As Eric Margolis reported for Vox, these facts do not bode well:
“Thus far, Japan has managed to escape exponential growth, but the worst may be yet to come. ‘This may be the tip of the iceberg,’ said John Ioannidis, professor of disease prevention at the Stanford School of Medicine. ‘If you don’t test, you find no cases and even no deaths.’”
What has people puzzled is the country’s relatively constant numbers of reported Covid-19-related deaths, despite rising case numbers. (There have been some questions as to whether Japan is thoroughly testing those with pneumonia, a common outcome and cause of death for severe Covid-19 cases.) Some attribute this to effective contact tracing that was done of cases early on in the outbreak or the country’s strong health care and elder care systems, Margolis noted.
Time — and increased testing — will tell whether Japan has efficiently controlled the virus and deaths as South Korea has managed to do. Or if it was a case of delayed detection and containment leading to a much larger disease burden.
United States
Estimated CFR: 5.31 percent
Where does the US stack up in all of this? Given that testing rates have been exceedingly low especially early on, as in Italy, undetected cases continued to spread the virus. As Dylan Scott and Rani Molla of Vox have written, case numbers in the US were more in line with Italy and Iran in mid-March, and “far outpaced places like Hong Kong and Singapore, where the governments mobilized more quickly.” The US is now on an even sharper trajectory of new cases than Italy or Iran. And that means a spike in deaths may well be coming next.
That is one of the other factors that can lead to a higher CFR: a sudden jump in the number of severe cases. When that happens, it “adds to the strain on the healthcare system and can overwhelm its medical resources,” wrote a team of researchers in The Lancet. That can result in not being able to save as many lives. (Hence the call to “flatten the curve.”) The US might be looking at this scenario in many places. New York City is already running out of hospital beds, with the projected peak outbreak there predicted to still be weeks away. And other cities and towns might face similar fates.
Risk map of #COVID19 in America? Here's mine: Any urban center with areas of high population density, esp those with #poverty/crowding where practicing social distancing can be challenging. So far it's been a good predictive map: NYC, Chicago, Detroit, NOLA, ATL, LA, SF, Seattle pic.twitter.com/WuQGMb7z1u — Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD (@PeterHotez) March 26, 2020
Within the US, too, the rates of mortality are varying widely. As of April 20, Michigan had a CFR of 7.6 percent — compared to Oregon’s 3.8 percent. The reasons for these emerging regional disparities are yet to be determined, but they will likely end up including the same factors that lead to countries’ different rates, such as the area’s healthcare resources and containment policies as well as the overall age and health of the population. (Current counts for states’ case and fatality numbers can be found here.)
What experts are looking out for next
It will be some time before testing catches up and we have firmer numbers for countries’ actual CFRs. Even when that happens, there will likely remain sharp contrasts among nations. As researchers noted in a March 20 Science report, “The patchwork reflects different phases of the epidemic, as well as differences in resources, cultures, governments and laws.”
As we learn more about the fatality rates for different populations of people, though, it will hopefully help governments make the best decisions about public health policies — as well as the best allocation of resources to protect and treat the most vulnerable.
A country’s response, so far, appears to have among the largest impact on the severity of an outbreak and the subsequent number of deaths, as demonstrated by South Korea’s apparent success (which was also achieved without broadly shuttering daily life). And as Vox’s Alex Ward writes: “Saving lives is ... about how quickly, thoroughly, and effectively the government responds to the brewing crisis. Any delay, it seems, is very costly.”
One of the big questions that remains to be answered is how the overlapping factors of a country’s age demographics and its health care resources impact the fatality rate. Going off of median age or the proportion of the population 65 or older may or may not end up being the next strongest predictor.
Countries with older populations tend, on the whole, to be wealthier and healthier, with better health and social infrastructures to begin with (for example, the notoriously rich country of Monaco boasts the highest media age: 55). Countries with younger populations, on the other hand, are often places where health care and other resources are scarcer and people are already not as likely to live to late adulthood (see Niger as the country with the youngest median age, at 14; and consider that in Uganda, only 2 percent of the population is over 65).
So, as the Covid-19 pandemic continues its global spread, experts will be closely watching not just countries with a large proportion of octogenarians but also those with higher poverty rates and already-stressed systems.
These countries might also be more likely to lag behind in test availability, logistics, and reporting, so it is possible that accurate data will be delayed or perhaps never be collected to know the true numbers of those infected or who perish from the illness. But even in the US, as the Atlantic reported, we might never know the true number of deaths this coronavirus causes. Because how we determine the ultimate cause of someone’s death is often not clear cut.
Will we ever know the pure case fatality rate of SARS-CoV-2? Some scientists are looking to the natural experiment that took place aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which was quarantined for more than a month. During that time, about 19 percent of the ship’s passengers and crew fell ill and were confirmed to have Covid-19. Of those 705 people with the virus, seven died, providing a CFR in a well-tested group of people of 0.99 percent. The cruise ship demographic did skew older, so, as researchers pointed out in The Lancet, “the CFR in a healthy, younger population could be lower.”
Whatever they end up being, the numbers from this pandemic will doubtlessly be studied for decades to come. As in a laboratory experiment where researchers set up different versions of the same test, changing this variable or that, the world’s countries are now part of this global test case.
With hindsight and thorough analysis, we will eventually be able to more carefully plot out steps and missteps and what combinations of factors from these experiments came to mean for different populations. And hopefully, with that knowledge, we will be able to better head off the next pandemic threat, which could be even more virulent.


vox--2020-04-22--Money Talks: The couple making it work during coronavirus layoffs

Welcome to Money Talks , a series in which we interview people about their relationship with money , their relationship with each other , and how those relationships inform one another .
Ryan and Julie ( not their real names ) live in Los Angeles and work in the entertainment industry .
Ryan , 39 , just got laid off from his second temp job this year ; prior to his most recent layoff , he was earning $ 18 an hour .
Julie , 32 , is a writer ’ s assistant on a popular network show and earns @ @ @ @ @ @ @ guarantee and overtime built in .
Julie has a union job with benefits and protections ; Ryan just filed for unemployment .
The following conversation is lightly condensed and edited for clarity .
Ryan : I haven ’ t picked up a show since February 2019 [ his last assistant job ] .
If I were working on something with multiple seasons , you ’ d work a season and you ’ d have some time off .
You could pick up other gigs , go on unemployment , and after two to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ back up and you ’ d be working again .
I found a couple temp jobs , but I got laid off from both of them .
Julie : I started working on my current show in November .
When we are working , we have the illusion of consistency — because if you are in a writers ’ room or on a show , those are gigs that tend to last at least 20 weeks , if not nine months at a time .
What ’ s really tough about this current @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Ryan ’ s boat , who were depending on the short , couple-day or couple-week gigs , all of that work is gone .
I ’ m lucky in that my work continues , writers ’ rooms are still going , but that ’ s the only thing that can still happen because you can do that remotely .
I know some people in post [ production ] who are still working , but basically everything else had to completely stop .
Executives are fine , the people I know who work @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can do that remotely , but the people who are actually making the stuff — all of those people are in big trouble .
Networks are taking this opportunity to bank scripts , but we can ’ t film new material while this is happening , and there is a real possibility that we might run out of material [ for viewers to watch/stream ] .
Ryan : We ’ re home together all day long .
We have a two-bedroom apartment , so we have a roommate who lives here as well @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we have a decent-sized place .
Our total rent is $ 1,900 split three ways , so we hit the jackpot .
It ’ s very cheap compared to everyone else we know .
Julie : Our 1,200-square-foot apartment , which is palatial to most people , has now become all of our home offices .
Ryan : We ’ re spending a lot more on food than we usually do .
In the entertainment industry your lunch is always covered .
Julie : I went from having lunch , if not breakfast @ @ @ @ @ @ @ food coming from work , to having to feed myself .
It ’ s a strange adjustment .
Ryan : [ We ’ re spending ] next to nothing on gas .
We try to , once or twice a week , order something to pick up from our local small restaurants to keep them supported , but we ’ re not going out to eat very often .
Julie : Ryan and I work in a big money industry and make very little of it .
We ’ re paycheck-to-paycheck , honestly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ months ’ cushion before we ’ re completely screwed .
A thing that ’ s been oddly good about this , which is not really the word I should be using , is that our student loans automatically went into forbearance .
That ’ s $ 500 a month that I can put towards the credit card debt we built while we were unemployed for seven months .
Both of us are paying less for car insurance , paying less for various bills , I think one of my credit card companies has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Ryan is on unemployment .
“ Ryan and I work in a big money industry and make very little of it ” Ryan : I ’ ll be making more on unemployment than you will working 60 hours a week .
When my payments start up I will probably get $ 450 a week .
[ Under the CARES Act , which includes a $ 600 weekly expanded unemployment benefit ] I ’ m not sure how the $ 600 works , but if it ’ s each week , I ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Julie : I personally believe that speaks more to how underpaid I am in general .
I think we ’ re in this pocket of people — and it ’ s true of a lot of people — before , we were underpaid Hollywood assistants .
Now , everybody is getting the help that we ’ ve kind of always needed .
We were so on the edge of financial ruin to begin with , that I ’ m actually able to take this time and pay off debt in a way @ @ @ @ @ @ @ since we have the money we ’ re saving on student loan payments and Ryan ’ s supplemental unemployment .
We had a very large vet bill back in January that we hopefully will be able to pay off before the credit card interest hits 28 percent .
Ryan : We have two cats .
One of them started breathing kind of funny , so we took him into the vet and they sent him to an emergency animal hospital .
His lungs were filling up with fluid .
He was on constant @ @ @ @ @ @ @ got to the point where we were financially going to have to start considering maybe letting him go , and then he started getting better .
Then he got sick again , and then he started to get better again .
Julie : It ended up costing us $ 15,000 .
Ryan : If we had known that would be the total cost , our cat probably wouldn ’ t be with us right now .
But because of the incremental nature and the rollercoaster nature of how he kept getting better and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ both took out new credit cards to cover the costs .
We also did a GoFundMe and raised $ 6,000 , which helped a lot .
Julie : Our credit cards came from CareCredit , which is a stopgap credit plan for pet emergencies and things like that .
We ’ ve already been able to pay off one of the cards with the help of friends and family , and the other one is six months interest-free .
That ’ s the one we ’ re trying to go after , because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it jumps up to like 28 percent interest .
Neither of us have great credit .
I recently paid off my car entirely , which helped .
But last February , we both were out of work at the same time , and although we had jobs here and there and were on unemployment , I didn ’ t get another full-time job until October .
Our credit card debt in general just sort of went back up , and that ’ s extremely common for people at our level in this industry @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we ’ re working , but we don ’ t have a lot of protection for when we ’ re not .
Ryan : You ’ re also not paid well enough when you ’ re working to cover yourself when you ’ re not .
Julie : Basically you pay off your credit cards when you ’ re working , so when you ’ re not working you can run them back up .
When our cat got sick , we were just at the place where we had started to even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ got the surprise bill .
Ryan : I also have $ 250,000 in student loans to pay off .
Julie : And I ’ m near that .
I ’ d have to look .
I hate talking about our debt .
It ’ s like you think you ’ re doing okay , and then you look at the numbers , and you think , “ Oh God , maybe I ’ m not.
” I ’ m in an interesting situation because I should be able to stay at my job @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s both opportunity and precedent for me to get promoted from assistant to staff writer .
The difference between what an assistant gets paid and what a staff writer gets paid is enormous .
Union minimum for staff writing jobs is $ 4,000 a week , which is four times what I ’ m making .
If that were to happen , even if Ryan is making no money at all , I ’ ll still be making double what we ’ ve ever made before .
Ryan : I ’ ll be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ clean and cook .
It ’ s already harder for people to find work because of smaller writers ’ rooms and so on .
Ryan was on a network show for four years , and when he went on hiatus he didn ’ t look for work because he knew it would only be two or three months before he went back to a job .
Now , when you do a season of a Netflix show , it can be a year before the room starts up again .
Those assistants and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ same level we ’ re at , they have to find another job to fill the year .
Finding writing jobs is hard , and finding assistant jobs in writers ’ rooms is even harder .
In my room , there are 10 writers and one of me .
A fear I have when this all ends is that , since everyone is out of work right now , everyone will be looking for work at the exact same time .
Ryan : This is a big scary gray area for me right @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a year since I ’ ve been able to find a job in the part of the industry that I ’ m trying to work and move up in .
My biggest fear about all of this is that , for the next show I get hired on , I ’ m still going to be a writers ’ PA — that ’ s the person who gets coffee and snacks and lunch for everyone — and I ’ m not going to move up .
It ’ s frustrating to have a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spend four years as a glorified coffee delivery service .
It ’ s possible to go from where I am right now to becoming a well-paid writer , but there ’ s no way to know .
Julie : It ’ s the strangest thing — for most people in our industry , this aspect is not new .
This is happening to everybody at the exact same time , but this was always happening to everybody in a slow churn .
Because [ this kind of financial uncertainty ] is now happening @ @ @ @ @ @ @ national response is able to help us in a way that we always could have used , I suppose .
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 : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an economic downturn .
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Welcome to Money Talks, a series in which we interview people about their relationship with money, their relationship with each other, and how those relationships inform one another.
Ryan and Julie (not their real names) live in Los Angeles and work in the entertainment industry. Ryan, 39, just got laid off from his second temp job this year; prior to his most recent layoff, he was earning $18 an hour. Julie, 32, is a writer’s assistant on a popular network show and earns $16.50 an hour with a 60-hour guarantee and overtime built in. Julie has a union job with benefits and protections; Ryan just filed for unemployment.
The following conversation is lightly condensed and edited for clarity.
Ryan: I haven’t picked up a show since February 2019 [his last assistant job]. If I were working on something with multiple seasons, you’d work a season and you’d have some time off. You could pick up other gigs, go on unemployment, and after two to three months the show would pick you back up and you’d be working again. I found a couple temp jobs, but I got laid off from both of them.
Julie: I started working on my current show in November. When we are working, we have the illusion of consistency — because if you are in a writers’ room or on a show, those are gigs that tend to last at least 20 weeks, if not nine months at a time.
What’s really tough about this current situation is that the people who are in Ryan’s boat, who were depending on the short, couple-day or couple-week gigs, all of that work is gone. I’m lucky in that my work continues, writers’ rooms are still going, but that’s the only thing that can still happen because you can do that remotely. I know some people in post [production] who are still working, but basically everything else had to completely stop.
Executives are fine, the people I know who work at studios are still working because you can do that remotely, but the people who are actually making the stuff — all of those people are in big trouble. Networks are taking this opportunity to bank scripts, but we can’t film new material while this is happening, and there is a real possibility that we might run out of material [for viewers to watch/stream].
Ryan: We’re home together all day long. We have a two-bedroom apartment, so we have a roommate who lives here as well. We’re very lucky because we have a decent-sized place. Our total rent is $1,900 split three ways, so we hit the jackpot. It’s very cheap compared to everyone else we know.
Julie: Our 1,200-square-foot apartment, which is palatial to most people, has now become all of our home offices.
Ryan: We’re spending a lot more on food than we usually do. In the entertainment industry your lunch is always covered.
Julie: I went from having lunch, if not breakfast and lunch, and all my snack food coming from work, to having to feed myself. It’s a strange adjustment.
Ryan: [We’re spending] next to nothing on gas. We try to, once or twice a week, order something to pick up from our local small restaurants to keep them supported, but we’re not going out to eat very often.
Julie: Ryan and I work in a big money industry and make very little of it. We’re paycheck-to-paycheck, honestly. We’ve got a couple months’ cushion before we’re completely screwed.
A thing that’s been oddly good about this, which is not really the word I should be using, is that our student loans automatically went into forbearance. That’s $500 a month that I can put towards the credit card debt we built while we were unemployed for seven months.
Both of us are paying less for car insurance, paying less for various bills, I think one of my credit card companies has offered some sort of interest reduction thing. Ryan is on unemployment.
“Ryan and I work in a big money industry and make very little of it”
Ryan: I’ll be making more on unemployment than you will working 60 hours a week. When my payments start up I will probably get $450 a week. [Under the CARES Act, which includes a $600 weekly expanded unemployment benefit] I’m not sure how the $600 works, but if it’s each week, I’ll be getting $1050 a week.
Julie: I personally believe that speaks more to how underpaid I am in general. I think we’re in this pocket of people — and it’s true of a lot of people — before, we were underpaid Hollywood assistants. Now, everybody is getting the help that we’ve kind of always needed.
We were so on the edge of financial ruin to begin with, that I’m actually able to take this time and pay off debt in a way that I couldn’t before, since we have the money we’re saving on student loan payments and Ryan’s supplemental unemployment. We had a very large vet bill back in January that we hopefully will be able to pay off before the credit card interest hits 28 percent.
Ryan: We have two cats. One of them started breathing kind of funny, so we took him into the vet and they sent him to an emergency animal hospital. His lungs were filling up with fluid. He was on constant oxygen for two weeks, and it got to the point where we were financially going to have to start considering maybe letting him go, and then he started getting better. Then he got sick again, and then he started to get better again.
Julie: It ended up costing us $15,000.
Ryan: If we had known that would be the total cost, our cat probably wouldn’t be with us right now. But because of the incremental nature and the rollercoaster nature of how he kept getting better and then getting worse again … basically we both took out new credit cards to cover the costs. We also did a GoFundMe and raised $6,000, which helped a lot.
Julie: Our credit cards came from CareCredit, which is a stopgap credit plan for pet emergencies and things like that. We’ve already been able to pay off one of the cards with the help of friends and family, and the other one is six months interest-free. That’s the one we’re trying to go after, because once the six months are over, it jumps up to like 28 percent interest.
Neither of us have great credit. I recently paid off my car entirely, which helped. But last February, we both were out of work at the same time, and although we had jobs here and there and were on unemployment, I didn’t get another full-time job until October. Our credit card debt in general just sort of went back up, and that’s extremely common for people at our level in this industry. We’re paid fine when we’re working, but we don’t have a lot of protection for when we’re not.
Ryan: You’re also not paid well enough when you’re working to cover yourself when you’re not.
Julie: Basically you pay off your credit cards when you’re working, so when you’re not working you can run them back up. When our cat got sick, we were just at the place where we had started to even back out again, and then we got the surprise bill.
Ryan: I also have $250,000 in student loans to pay off.
Julie: And I’m near that. I’d have to look. I hate talking about our debt. It’s like you think you’re doing okay, and then you look at the numbers, and you think, “Oh God, maybe I’m not.”
I’m in an interesting situation because I should be able to stay at my job for a while — and there’s both opportunity and precedent for me to get promoted from assistant to staff writer. The difference between what an assistant gets paid and what a staff writer gets paid is enormous. Union minimum for staff writing jobs is $4,000 a week, which is four times what I’m making. If that were to happen, even if Ryan is making no money at all, I’ll still be making double what we’ve ever made before.
Ryan: I’ll be your house husband! I’ll clean and cook.
Julie: That’d be great!
It’s already harder for people to find work because of smaller writers’ rooms and so on. Ryan was on a network show for four years, and when he went on hiatus he didn’t look for work because he knew it would only be two or three months before he went back to a job. Now, when you do a season of a Netflix show, it can be a year before the room starts up again. Those assistants and those writers, the people at the same level we’re at, they have to find another job to fill the year. Finding writing jobs is hard, and finding assistant jobs in writers’ rooms is even harder. In my room, there are 10 writers and one of me.
A fear I have when this all ends is that, since everyone is out of work right now, everyone will be looking for work at the exact same time.
Ryan: This is a big scary gray area for me right now. It’s been over a year since I’ve been able to find a job in the part of the industry that I’m trying to work and move up in. My biggest fear about all of this is that, for the next show I get hired on, I’m still going to be a writers’ PA — that’s the person who gets coffee and snacks and lunch for everyone — and I’m not going to move up. It’s frustrating to have a master’s degree in screenwriting and spend four years as a glorified coffee delivery service. It’s possible to go from where I am right now to becoming a well-paid writer, but there’s no way to know.
Julie: It’s the strangest thing — for most people in our industry, this aspect is not new. This is happening to everybody at the exact same time, but this was always happening to everybody in a slow churn. Because [this kind of financial uncertainty] is now happening on such a giant scale, the national response is able to help us in a way that we always could have used, I suppose.


vox--2020-04-22--Most people dying from Covid-19 are old. Don’t treat them just as statistics.

I know to stay 6 feet away from others , to leave my shoes at the door , to tip like a Rockefeller on deliveries , and that I can take my temperature with a meat thermometer .
I ’ d been briefed on preventative measures for the coronavirus , but I knew nothing about emotionally preparing to grieve .
My grandfather died on April 6 , 2020 , from Covid-19 complications .
We knew his nursing home , one of the best in Connecticut , was in lockdown .
We knew he had a fever and was sleeping all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ swallowing anymore , his chest rising and falling rapidly .
The average respiratory rate is 12-20 breaths per minute ; my grandfather was taking 50 .
We knew his mouth was cracked , that his skin was irregularly colored , and he was letting go .
My mother considered taking her car there and just sitting in the parking lot to feel close to him .
Mercifully , the final stages happened fast .
There are thousands of Americans dying from Covid-19 every day .
Most of them are elderly and immunocompromised , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it from the headlines .
A young , healthy person dies and it ’ s an injustice , a scare tactic that gets shared on social media with a reminder to stay home .
But when it ’ s a frail senior , well , their time was up .
My grandfather gets to be a glossed-over statistic , a data point .
My grandfather , Werner Joseph Meyer ( originally “ Meier , ” but he changed it to seem more American ) , was born on a dairy farm in Buchs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and sisters and a 6th-grade education .
He served in WWII .
He tended bar and sold Electrolux vacuum cleaners door-to-door .
After emigrating to America , he opened a restaurant , The Village Bistro in Fleetwood , New York .
My grandfather loved classical music , Clams Casino , and gardening .
He was legendary for having the nicest cameras but taking the worst pictures .
He obsessed over making lump-free mashed potatoes and finding the perfectly shaped Christmas tree .
The news was delivered to me over FaceTime .
I was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ York City , the epicenter of the virus , sheltered in place , my sobbing reflection staring back at me while I held my phone up .
Grieving in self-isolation is one of the most unnatural things I ’ ve ever experienced .
My grandfather had no funeral , no eulogy , no closure .
He was a man of faith , but there was no priest at his bedside to administer last rites , no full-color double-sided prayer cards .
He was cremated because the morgues were at capacity , and as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ too contagious to embalm .
There wasn ’ t enough notice to purchase an urn , and the crematorium was sold out .
My mother went to pick up my grandfather ’ s remains and received an 8x10 box in a reusable tote bag .
Working through grief is an isolating process , but it ’ s somehow even lonelier with my world shrunk to a 500-square-foot apartment .
It ’ s in my nature to ask for some space , but now all I have is space .
There were traditional observances @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was robbed of the comforting rituals , too : going through boxes of my grandfather ’ s old photos , yelling to my sisters in the other room for waterproof mascara , having a “ take your mind off it ” dinner with friends where everything felt normal again for one night .
Instead of finding solace through support and human connection , I “ went ” back to work the next day and tried to live with the loss .
I got burned out from answering sympathetic text messages .
I took @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the sidewalk , my face mask drawing a curtain around me .
It was all so anticlimactic that some days I forget he ’ s even gone .
This aggressive virus is making us confront the reality of death every day , but our culture doesn ’ t sensationalize the elderly and immunocompromised fatalities like the younger ones .
The bias is pervasive and insidious , their lives seen as expendable .
It ’ s this idea that underscores the push some politicians are making to reopen the economy sooner than most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the economic costs are not worth the deaths of some elderly people .
With my grandfather , Alzheimer ’ s had started to show itself years ago and we accepted he was nearing the end of his life .
That doesn ’ t make his passing any less of a tragedy .
He wasn ’ t sick , and he wasn ’ t ready to die .
There were 11 other fatalities at his nursing home , alongside countless stories and tens of thousands of families like mine who were bracing for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ These are real people .
They deserve that recognition , too .
May my grandfather experience a shred of dignity in his remembrance that he was not afforded in death .
Later this year , my family and I will have a “ celebration of life ” to honor his 90th birthday .
Those who are gone live on in our actions and emulations , so we ’ ll serve the silkiest mashed potatoes and somehow manage to not get a good photo of anyone .
Finally free to gather in the physical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the chance to say goodbye .
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 : 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 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 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 know to stay 6 feet away from others, to leave my shoes at the door, to tip like a Rockefeller on deliveries, and that I can take my temperature with a meat thermometer. I’d been briefed on preventative measures for the coronavirus, but I knew nothing about emotionally preparing to grieve.
My grandfather died on April 6, 2020, from Covid-19 complications. We knew his nursing home, one of the best in Connecticut, was in lockdown. We knew he had a fever and was sleeping all the time. He wasn’t swallowing anymore, his chest rising and falling rapidly. The average respiratory rate is 12-20 breaths per minute; my grandfather was taking 50. We knew his mouth was cracked, that his skin was irregularly colored, and he was letting go. My mother considered taking her car there and just sitting in the parking lot to feel close to him. Mercifully, the final stages happened fast.
There are thousands of Americans dying from Covid-19 every day. Most of them are elderly and immunocompromised, but you almost wouldn’t know it from the headlines. A young, healthy person dies and it’s an injustice, a scare tactic that gets shared on social media with a reminder to stay home. But when it’s a frail senior, well, their time was up. My grandfather gets to be a glossed-over statistic, a data point.
My grandfather, Werner Joseph Meyer (originally “Meier,” but he changed it to seem more American), was born on a dairy farm in Buchs, Switzerland. He had nine brothers and sisters and a 6th-grade education. He served in WWII. He tended bar and sold Electrolux vacuum cleaners door-to-door. After emigrating to America, he opened a restaurant, The Village Bistro in Fleetwood, New York. My grandfather loved classical music, Clams Casino, and gardening. He was legendary for having the nicest cameras but taking the worst pictures. He obsessed over making lump-free mashed potatoes and finding the perfectly shaped Christmas tree.
The news was delivered to me over FaceTime. I was alone in my living room in New York City, the epicenter of the virus, sheltered in place, my sobbing reflection staring back at me while I held my phone up. Grieving in self-isolation is one of the most unnatural things I’ve ever experienced. My grandfather had no funeral, no eulogy, no closure. He was a man of faith, but there was no priest at his bedside to administer last rites, no full-color double-sided prayer cards. He was cremated because the morgues were at capacity, and as it was, the body was likely too contagious to embalm. There wasn’t enough notice to purchase an urn, and the crematorium was sold out. My mother went to pick up my grandfather’s remains and received an 8x10 box in a reusable tote bag.
Working through grief is an isolating process, but it’s somehow even lonelier with my world shrunk to a 500-square-foot apartment. It’s in my nature to ask for some space, but now all I have is space. There were traditional observances we missed out on, but I was robbed of the comforting rituals, too: going through boxes of my grandfather’s old photos, yelling to my sisters in the other room for waterproof mascara, having a “take your mind off it” dinner with friends where everything felt normal again for one night. Instead of finding solace through support and human connection, I “went” back to work the next day and tried to live with the loss. I got burned out from answering sympathetic text messages. I took a government-approved solitary walk and cried openly on the sidewalk, my face mask drawing a curtain around me. It was all so anticlimactic that some days I forget he’s even gone.
This aggressive virus is making us confront the reality of death every day, but our culture doesn’t sensationalize the elderly and immunocompromised fatalities like the younger ones. The bias is pervasive and insidious, their lives seen as expendable. It’s this idea that underscores the push some politicians are making to reopen the economy sooner than most public health experts are recommending — that the economic costs are not worth the deaths of some elderly people.
With my grandfather, Alzheimer’s had started to show itself years ago and we accepted he was nearing the end of his life. That doesn’t make his passing any less of a tragedy. He wasn’t sick, and he wasn’t ready to die. There were 11 other fatalities at his nursing home, alongside countless stories and tens of thousands of families like mine who were bracing for the worst and had their lives upended. These are real people. They deserve that recognition, too.
May my grandfather experience a shred of dignity in his remembrance that he was not afforded in death. Later this year, my family and I will have a “celebration of life” to honor his 90th birthday. Those who are gone live on in our actions and emulations, so we’ll serve the silkiest mashed potatoes and somehow manage to not get a good photo of anyone. Finally free to gather in the physical world again, we’ll get the chance to say goodbye.
Maryellen Stewart lives in Brooklyn, New York.


vox--2020-04-22--Amazon employees shared an event invite to discuss how the company treats its workers. Then it disap

Amazon employees shared an event invite to discuss how the company treats its workers. Then it disappeared.

Several of Amazon ’ s corporate employees are urging thousands of their colleagues to defy their employer by taking this Friday off of work en masse to instead gather virtually and discuss how to push for more rights for the company ’ s warehouse workers during the Covid-19 pandemic .
Now , several Amazon employees have told Recode that invitations to the virtual event have mysteriously disappeared from their calendars and inboxes .
Workers told Recode that they believe Amazon ’ s management has deleted the event in an attempt to quash a growing collaboration between corporate and warehouse level @ @ @ @ @ @ @ environmental concerns .
Amazon declined to comment when asked if it had deleted the event .
After an Amazon corporate employee emailed invitations to the event to thousands of colleagues on Tuesday afternoon , the invite had been deleted from many ( but not all ) employees ’ inboxes by Wednesday morning .
The controversy around the event demonstrates escalating tensions within Amazon ’ s workforce , both white-collar and blue-collar , during an unprecedented public health disaster .
It ’ s a critical time for the company to grapple with intensifying internal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its most vulnerable employees .
Amazon has become an essential service for millions of Americans who are on lockdown during the pandemic , which has thrust the company in the spotlight in both positive and negative ways .
Amazon ’ s leadership has called warehouse and delivery workers “ heroes ” and raised their wages by $ 2 per hour , but the company has also faced scrutiny from both internal and external critics who say it isn ’ t doing enough to compensate or protect the health of its workers who are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ running .
“ Amazon has begun making significant improvements in COVID-19 protections in warehouses , but after hearing from our colleagues working in warehouses throughout the world , we believe there needs to be more protections , transparency , and uncensored , supported space for dialog and deep listening , ” the now-deleted invitation said .
“ If we ’ re censored and can ’ t talk with warehouse workers , how can we work with them to make things better ?
” The event , which its organizers are calling a “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ planned on Friday , and the group organizing it , Amazon Employees for Climate Justice , has said in a public blog post that at least 100 employees so far plan to attend , out of Amazon ’ s tens of thousands of corporate employees .
In light of the Covid-19 pandemic , Amazon warehouse workers have demanded greater protections from the company , such as easier access to sick leave and protective gear .
While the company has responded to some of workers ’ concerns and is now providing masks and checking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for shifts , many workers say these efforts are not enough .
The number of Amazon employees who have tested positive for Covid-19 has grown to include workers from at least 50 US Amazon facilities that remain open for business .
Over 300 warehouse workers across 50 sites nationwide have pledged to call in sick this week to put pressure on Amazon to meet demands for greater paid leave and sanitation measures at warehouses that employ over 250,000 warehouse workers .
In recent weeks , Amazon ’ s corporate employees have been increasingly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s warehouse workers .
In response , Amazon management has been cracking down on such activity .
Last week , the company fired two of its most vocal tech employee critics , Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa , who were leaders of the worker group that helped organize a similar warehouse worker panel discussion to the one planned for this Friday .
Employees say that invitations to that event were also deleted , but it went on as planned with over 400 attendees .
Cunningham ’ s and Costa ’ s firing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have continued to organize the sickout despite fears that they ’ ll lose their jobs as a result .
“ It ’ s hard to think of any stronger way to discourage something than deleting a bunch of invites and emails out of the entire companies ’ inboxes and calendars and firing everyone involved , ” one Amazon employee told Recode , who spoke on the condition of anonymity .
With regard to Amazon ’ s dismissal of Cunningham and Costa , a spokesperson sent the following statement : “ We support every @ @ @ @ @ @ @ employer ’ s working conditions , but that does not come with blanket immunity against any and all internal policies .
We terminated these employees for repeatedly violating internal policies.
” The spokesperson declined to respond to a follow-up question about what specific internal policy was violated .
Organizers of Friday ’ s sickout are calling for Amazon to reinstate “ any worker who was fired based on selective enforcement of policies and behavior guidelines.
” Since Amazon ’ s corporate employees are largely divided from warehouse workers , Friday ’ s event @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , business analysts , and other white-collar workers to hear directly from their warehouse colleagues about their concerns .
Employees also plan to discuss Amazon ’ s policies around environmental sustainability , which in the past was the primary focus of the group organizing , AECJ .
Amazon has long faced criticism and questioning over its labor practices for warehouse and delivery workers .
And in the past , it has successfully dissuaded its workforce from nascent attempts at unionization .
But Amazon ’ s sharpest critics on labor conditions have historically come @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other major tech companies like Google , Amazon ’ s corporate culture hasn ’ t been as politically outspoken and until recently , workers have refrained from publicly criticizing company policies .
That ’ s been changing in the past year , as more of its corporate workers have begun pushing back against their employer .
Now , during the pandemic , these concerns have intensified — as have management ’ s attempts to push back .
In recent weeks , the company has fired at least two warehouse worker activists .
One @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , was the target of an executive plan to smear his reputation as a “ not smart or articulate ” leader , according to a leaked memo notes from an internal meeting .
The circumstances around Smalls ’ firing have prompted an investigation by the New York City Human Rights Commission and the New York State Attorney General .
And Whole Foods , which is owned by Amazon , has also reportedly been building a heat map to track the likelihood of different stores that might attempt to unionize , demonstrating again how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ growing threat of worker activism .
Amazon is more powerful than ever during this pandemic , as more people depend on its services and it faces less competition from now-shuttered brick-and-mortar stores .
But as this event and the controversy surrounding it show , the company ’ s reputation will also be impacted by how it treats its own workers , who , despite the risks in doing so , continue to press the company for greater transparency and rights for their colleagues on the frontlines .

Several of Amazon’s corporate employees are urging thousands of their colleagues to defy their employer by taking this Friday off work en masse to instead gather virtually and discuss how to push for more rights for the company’s warehouse workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, several Amazon employees have told Recode that invitations to the virtual event have mysteriously disappeared from their calendars and inboxes.
Workers told Recode they believe Amazon’s management deleted the event in an attempt to quash a growing collaboration between corporate and warehouse-level employees over workers’ labor rights and environmental concerns.
Amazon declined to comment when asked if it had deleted the event.
After an Amazon corporate employee emailed invitations to the event to thousands of colleagues on Tuesday afternoon, the invite had been deleted from many (but not all) employees’ inboxes by Wednesday morning. The controversy around the event demonstrates escalating tensions within Amazon’s workforce, both white-collar and blue-collar, during an unprecedented public health disaster. It’s a critical time for the company to grapple with intensifying internal dissent around how it treats some of its most vulnerable employees.
Amazon has become an essential service for millions of Americans who are on lockdown during the pandemic, which has thrust the company in the spotlight in both positive and negative ways. Amazon’s leadership has called warehouse and delivery workers “heroes” and raised their wages by $2 per hour, but the company has also faced scrutiny from both internal and external critics who say it isn’t doing enough to compensate or protect the health of its workers who are risking their lives to keep its businesses running.
Do you work at Amazon and have thoughts on what’s going on? Please email Shirin Ghaffary at shirin.ghaffary@protonmail.com or Jason Del Rey at jasondelrey@protonmail.com to reach them confidentially. Signal numbers available upon request by email.
“Amazon has begun making significant improvements in COVID-19 protections in warehouses, but after hearing from our colleagues working in warehouses throughout the world, we believe there needs to be more protections, transparency, and uncensored, supported space for dialog and deep listening,” the now-deleted invitation said. “If we’re censored and can’t talk with warehouse workers, how can we work with them to make things better?”
The event, which its organizers are calling a “sickout,” will still continue as planned on Friday, and the group organizing it, Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, has said in a public blog post that at least 100 employees so far plan to attend, out of Amazon’s hundreds of thousands of corporate employees.
In light of the pandemic, Amazon warehouse workers have demanded greater protections from the company, such as easier access to sick leave and protective gear. While the company has responded to some of the workers’ concerns and is now providing masks and checking employees’ temperatures when they show up for shifts, many workers say these efforts are insufficient. The number of Amazon employees who have tested positive for Covid-19 has grown to include workers from at least 50 US Amazon facilities that remain open for business. Over 300 warehouse workers across 50 sites nationwide have pledged to call in sick this week to put pressure on Amazon to meet demands for greater paid leave and sanitation measures at warehouses that together employ more than 250,000 warehouse workers.
In recent weeks, Amazon’s corporate employees have been increasingly organizing to show support for the company’s warehouse workers. In response, Amazon management has been cracking down on such activity. Last week, the company fired two of its most vocal tech employee critics, Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, who were leaders of the worker group that helped organize a similar warehouse worker panel discussion to the one planned for Friday. Employees say that invitations to that event were also deleted, but it went on as planned with over 400 attendees. Cunningham’s and Costa’s firing angered some of their colleagues, who have continued to organize the sickout despite fears that they’ll lose their jobs as a result.
“It’s hard to think of any stronger way to discourage something than deleting a bunch of invites and emails out of the entire companies’ inboxes and calendars and firing everyone involved,” one Amazon employee told Recode, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
With regard to Amazon’s dismissal of Cunningham and Costa, a spokesperson sent the following statement: “We support every employee’s right to criticize their employer’s working conditions, but that does not come with blanket immunity against any and all internal policies. We terminated these employees for repeatedly violating internal policies.”
The spokesperson declined to respond to a follow-up question about which specific internal policies were violated.
Organizers of Friday’s sickout are calling for Amazon to reinstate “any worker who was fired based on selective enforcement of policies and behavior guidelines.”
Since Amazon’s corporate employees are largely divided from warehouse workers, Friday’s event provides a rare opportunity for software engineers, business analysts, and other white-collar workers to hear directly from their warehouse colleagues about their concerns. Employees also plan to discuss Amazon’s policies around environmental sustainability, which in the past was the primary focus of the group organizing, AECJ.
Amazon has long faced criticism and questioning over its labor practices for warehouse and delivery workers. And in the past, it has successfully dissuaded its workforce from nascent attempts at unionization. But Amazon’s sharpest critics on labor conditions have historically come from outside the company. Unlike some other major tech companies like Google, Amazon’s corporate culture hasn’t been as politically outspoken and until recently, workers have refrained from publicly criticizing company policies. That’s been changing in the past year, as more of its corporate workers have begun pushing back against their employer. Now, during the pandemic, these concerns have intensified — as have management’s attempts to push back.
In recent weeks, the company has fired at least two warehouse worker activists. One of those fired activists, Chris Smalls, was the target of an executive plan to smear his reputation as a “not smart or articulate” leader, according to leaked memo notes from an internal meeting. The circumstances around Smalls’s firing have prompted an investigation by the New York City Human Rights Commission and the New York State Attorney General.
And Whole Foods, which is owned by Amazon, has also reportedly been building a heat map to track the likelihood of different stores that might attempt to unionize, demonstrating again how much the company is fighting against a growing threat of worker activism.
Amazon is more powerful than ever during this pandemic as more people depend on its services and it faces less competition from now-shuttered brick-and-mortar stores. But as this event and the controversy surrounding it show, the company’s reputation will also be impacted by how it treats its workers, who, despite the risks in doing so, continue to press the company for greater transparency and rights for their colleagues on the front lines.
Jason Del Rey contributed reporting to this article.