vox--2020-06-17--The president of Honduras is the latest world leader to test positive for the coronavirus

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández is the latest world leader to test positive for Covid-19 .
In a televised address on Tuesday night , Hernández announced that he began feeling sick over the weekend and received his diagnosis yesterday .
His wife , first lady Ana García de Hernández , and two presidential aides also tested positive .
Hernández , who is 51 years old , said he will continue to lead the country while in self-isolation , adding that he feels “ enough strength and energy to continue forward and beat this pandemic.
” The first lady , who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
A statement from his office said that Hernández had “ at all times maintained the preventive measures recommended by the health authorities , ” but that “ the nature of his job made staying completely isolated from others impossible , ” according to CNN .
The statement also urged Hondurans to continue taking preventative measures like social distancing and wearing masks .
Hernández has led Honduras since 2014 — and since then , he ’ s been a subject of widespread controversy .
He has affirmed his commitment to fighting drug trafficking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that exact crime in October , and Hernández has been accused of being an accomplice .
Hernández also narrowly won a second term in 2017 in a controversial election in which both candidates declared themselves the winner after a long and contentious vote count .
US President Donald Trump backed Hernández ’ s victory despite protests in Honduras and calls from American politicians for new elections .
Hernández ’ s diagnosis comes as coronavirus cases surge in Latin America , leading the World Health Organization to declare the region the new epicenter of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 10,000 total cases and more than 300 deaths , and despite concerns about the capacity of the country ’ s health care system , businesses began reopening last week .
Hernández claimed that the economy could no longer handle being shut down after businesses closed and a curfew was issued in mid-March .
Brazil has borne the brunt of the pandemic in Latin America , reporting nearly 35,000 new cases within a 24-hour period on Tuesday .
Brazil , which is approaching 1 million total cases , ranks second to the United States @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is the latest in a series of world leaders to test positive Hernández is the first leader in Latin America to test positive for Covid-19 , but several other political figures around the world have fought their own battles with the virus .
In March , British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that he ’ d tested positive for the coronavirus .
Initially , Johnson continued to work while in self-isolation , but his condition worsened , and he was admitted to the hospital and spent three nights in the intensive care unit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ICU , Johnson was discharged from the hospital on April 12 .
The coronavirus has also ravaged the Iranian government , with at least 24 members of Parliament reporting positive diagnoses , including two deaths .
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan have both tested positive and recovered .
Hernández ’ s wife is also not the first spouse of a head of state to test positive .
Sophie Grégoire Trudeau , the wife of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau , contracted Covid-19 in March and recovered later @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The Ukrainian government announced yesterday that Olena Zelenska , the wife of president Volodymyr Zelensky , was hospitalized after contracting the virus .
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 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 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 .

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández is the latest world leader to test positive for Covid-19. He was hospitalized with pneumonia on Wednesday, one day after he announced his coronavirus diagnosis.
Hernández is in good condition and is receiving intravenous medicine, a Honduran health agency spokesperson said Wednesday. Doctors recommended he be hospitalized after diagnosing him with pneumonia after taking x-rays and lab work.
In a televised address on Tuesday night, Hernández announced that he began feeling sick over the weekend and received his diagnosis the next day. His wife, first lady Ana García de Hernández, and two presidential aides also tested positive.
Hernández, who is 51 years old, said he will continue to lead the country while in self-isolation, adding that he feels “enough strength and energy to continue forward and beat this pandemic.” The first lady, who is currently asymptomatic, is also self-isolating.
A statement from his office said that Hernández had “at all times maintained the preventive measures recommended by the health authorities,” but that “the nature of his job made staying completely isolated from others impossible,” according to CNN. The statement also urged Hondurans to continue taking preventative measures like social distancing and wearing masks.
Hernández has led Honduras since 2014 — and since then, he’s been a subject of widespread controversy. He has affirmed his commitment to fighting drug trafficking — but his brother was convicted for that exact crime in October, and Hernández has been accused of being an accomplice.
Hernández also narrowly won a second term in 2017 in a controversial election in which both candidates declared themselves the winner after a long and contentious vote count. US President Donald Trump backed Hernández’s victory despite protests in Honduras and calls from American politicians for new elections.
Hernández’s diagnosis comes as coronavirus cases surge in Latin America, leading the World Health Organization to declare the region the new epicenter of the pandemic.
Honduras has reported nearly 10,000 total cases and more than 300 deaths, and despite concerns about the capacity of the country’s health care system, businesses began reopening last week. Hernández claimed that the economy could no longer handle being shut down after businesses closed and a curfew was issued in mid-March.
Brazil has borne the brunt of the pandemic in Latin America, reporting nearly 35,000 new cases within a 24-hour period on Tuesday. Brazil, which is approaching 1 million total cases, ranks second to the United States in total number of cases.
Hernández is the latest in a series of world leaders to test positive
Hernández is the first leader in Latin America to test positive for Covid-19, but several other political figures around the world have fought their own battles with the virus.
In March, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that he’d tested positive for the coronavirus. Initially, Johnson continued to work while in self-isolation, but his condition worsened, and he was admitted to the hospital and spent three nights in the intensive care unit. After receiving oxygen treatment in the ICU, Johnson was discharged from the hospital on April 12.
The coronavirus has also ravaged the Iranian government, with at least 24 members of Parliament reporting positive diagnoses, including two deaths. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan have both tested positive and recovered.
Hernández’s wife is also not the first spouse of a head of state to test positive. Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, the wife of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, contracted Covid-19 in March and recovered later that month following a self-isolation period. The Ukrainian government announced yesterday that Olena Zelenska, the wife of president Volodymyr Zelensky, was hospitalized after contracting the virus.


vox--2020-06-17--The police killing of Rayshard Brooks at a Wendy’s drive-through, explained

On the evening of Friday , June 12 , a police officer shot and killed a 27-year-old black man , Rayshard Brooks , outside an Atlanta Wendy ’ s drive-through .
The shooting followed a struggle that began after Brooks failed sobriety tests .
Brooks ’ s death — caught on video from multiple sources , including a witness ’ s cellphone —triggered a new wave of demonstrations against police brutality in the city , and ultimately resulted in the resignation of Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields Saturday afternoon .
The police officer who killed Brooks , Garrett Rolfe , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ officer involved in the shooting , Devin Brosnan , has been placed on administrative duty .
On Wednesday , June 17 , the Fulton district attorney announced that Rolfe will face 11 charges , including felony murder ; Brosnan will face three charges , including aggravated assault .
Brooks ’ s death had been ruled a homicide by a county medical examiner .
The incident has further galvanized anti-racism and police brutality protests in Atlanta , which had already seen large demonstrations in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation ( GBI ) , Atlanta police officers were called to the scene around 10:30 pm after receiving a complaint of a man sleeping in his vehicle , which was blocking the drive-through and forcing other cars to drive around it .
The police officers gave Brooks sobriety tests , and he failed , according to investigators .
The GBI claimed in an initial statement released Saturday — based on body camera footage and police and witness accounts — that this is what transpired following the testing : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that it had obtained surveillance from Wendy ’ s and reviewed a viral video captured by a witness ’ s cellphone that was posted to social media , saying video evidence showed Brooks grabbing the Taser and pointing it at an officer .
“ These new videos indicate that during a physical struggle with officers , Brooks obtained one of the officer ’ s Tasers and began to flee from the scene , ” the statement reads .
“ Officers pursued Brooks on foot and during the chase , Brooks turned and pointed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ officer fired his weapon , striking Brooks.
” Taken together , that viral video , body camera footage , dash cam clips , and video from one of the restaurant ’ s surveillance cameras provide a more complete picture of the incident .
The body camera clips show the first part of the encounter .
Brosnan , an officer who joined the police department in 2018 , is the first law enforcement official on the scene .
His body camera shows him going up to Brooks ’ s car and banging on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the door .
Brooks tells Brosnan he doesn ’ t need medical attention and is just tired ; Brosnan tells him to park and take a nap .
Brosnan returns to his squad car , saying , “ I don ’ t want to deal with this dude right now.
” When he returns , Brooks tells the officer he is in the area visiting his mother ’ s grave and marking a series of birthdays , including his own and his girlfriend ’ s .
Throughout the encounter , he appears slightly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is .
When Rolfe arrives and takes over the interview , Brooks said , “ Mr .
Rolfe , I couldn ’ t focus , ” after telling the officer that he ’ s not feeling well and suggesting he rest more in his car .
Brooks takes a field sobriety test .
Rolfe then tries to get Brooks to agree to a breathalyzer test , as Brooks repeatedly offers to leave his car parked and walk to his sister ’ s home , which he says is nearby .
After a few @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the test , saying , “ I don ’ t want to refuse anything.
” That test showed Brooks had a blood alcohol level of about .02 above the legal limit , according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution .
After looking at the test results , Rolfe says , “ I think you ’ ve had too much to drink to be driving , ” and tells Brooks to put his hands behind his back .
Brooks begins to do so , then leans forward — Rolfe and Brosnan grab his arms , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
It is difficult to tell what happens next from the officers ’ body cameras , but dash camera clips show both officers tackling Brooks to the ground , then piling on top of him .
Brooks continues to wiggle , and the officers yell , “ Stop fighting , stop fighting , ” and “ You ’ re going to get Tased !
” Brooks says , “ Mr .
Rolfe , ” as the men roll on the ground ; the viral video shows this part of the struggle , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ blows .
The dash cam video shows Brooks standing after a time , a Taser in his hand .
Rolfe appears to discharge his Taser ; Brooks then turns and runs .
Surveillance camera video slowed down by the New York Times shows what happens next in exacting detail : Brooks , still running , begins to turn , the hand holding the Taser raised .
He fires his Taser , but it does not connect with Rolfe , who draws his handgun and fires three shots .
Brooks falls to the ground @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to stand over the body as witnesses film with their phones .
After about two minutes , one officer jogs back to the squad car as more police arrive .
That officer returns with a bag and crouches next to Brooks ; after about 10 minutes , an ambulance arrives and takes Brooks to a hospital , where he died after surgery , according to the GBI .
Brooks ’ s death has sparked new protests — and change in the Atlanta Police Department Ahead of the release of the body camera footage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the official account of what happened .
Saturday , an attorney for the family , L. Chris Stewart , said according to interviews his office conducted with witnesses , Rolfe and his partner did not give Brooks a sobriety test .
The recently released clips show that Brooks did indeed have two sobriety tests , but back up another claim Stewart made — that the encounter began with Brooks in “ civil ” conversation with law enforcement outside his car .
At a Saturday press conference , Stewart also stressed that Brooks was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and noted the weapon is nonlethal , saying , “ [ Rolfe ’ s ] life was not in immediate harm when he fired that shot.
” And the lawyer said that video of the officers near Brooks in the first few minutes after the shooting does not show them checking on him , but instead collecting bullet casings — Stewart claims that it was not until an officer returned from his squad car with a bag , roughly two minutes after the shooting , that Brooks had his pulse checked .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ protests that began after a now-former Minneapolis police officer killed an unarmed black man , George Floyd , by pinning his knee on Floyd ’ s neck for nearly nine minutes .
And it follows a series of police shootings in Georgia — Brooks ’ s killing is the 48th officer-involved shooting that the GBI has been called upon to investigate so far this year .
Ahead of his death , protesters gathered in the city as part of that nationwide movement ; early Saturday , they gathered outside the Wendy ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ No justice , no peace.
” Protests continued throughout Saturday , and at the Wendy ’ s , Decatur Redd , a relative of Brooks , expressed shock to reporters .
“ I ’ ve watched this on the internet , from the whole George Floyd situation , to us coming together like we ’ re doing — and this whole thing landed on my doorstep with my little cousin , ” Redd said , according to CNN .
“ I thought Atlanta was higher than that .
I thought Atlanta was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Woodall , state president of the Georgia NAACP , called for Shields to be fired .
“ This is not the first time a black man has been killed for sleeping , ” Woodall said , according to the Washington Post .
“ While Atlanta is often called ‘ the Black Mecca , ’ the Atlanta Police Department has a continued history of antagonizing our communities.
” Shields responded to this demand , and those of other activists , by tendering her resignation Saturday afternoon .
“ Because of her desire that Atlanta @ @ @ @ @ @ @ should look like across this country , Chief Shields has offered to immediately step aside as police chief so that the city may move forward with urgency and rebuilding the trust that is desperately needed throughout our communities , ” Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said at a press conference Saturday evening .
Stacey Abrams , a former gubernatorial candidate in Georgia , also called for action .
“ The killing of # RayshardBrooks in Atlanta last night demands we severely restrict the use of deadly force , ” Abrams tweeted .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — but so too should accountability .
Sleeping in a drive-thru must not end in death.
” Bottoms said she agreed Saturday — shortly after she called for Rolfe ’ s firing , he was terminated .
Brosnan has been placed on administrative duty .
Demonstrations continued following that termination , with a gathering on an interstate and about 1,000 people protesting near the site of Brooks ’ s killing , according to the Atlanta Fire Department .
During that protest , a fire broke out at the restaurant after agitators broke windows @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Atlanta Journal-Constitution .
The fire was put out by the department , and officers made a number of arrests .
Sunday , the Fulton County Medical examiner released a report on Brooks ’ s death that ruled his killing a homicide .
The examiner stated that Brooks died after being shot in the back by two bullets , causing “ organ injuries and blood loss.
” On Wednesday , Fulton District Attorney Paul Howard announced that Rolfe will be charged with felony murder , and Brosnan with aggravated assault .
Both men @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Brosnan has also agreed to be a state ’ s witness , Howard said .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : 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 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 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 .

On the evening of Friday, June 12, a police officer shot and killed a 27-year-old black man, Rayshard Brooks, outside an Atlanta Wendy’s drive-through. The shooting followed a struggle that began after Brooks failed sobriety tests.
Brooks’s death — caught on video from multiple sources, including a witness’s cellphone —triggered a new wave of demonstrations against police brutality in the city, and ultimately resulted in the resignation of Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields Saturday afternoon. The police officer who killed Brooks, Garrett Rolfe, has been fired, and the other officer involved in the shooting, Devin Brosnan, has been placed on administrative duty. On Wednesday, June 17, the Fulton district attorney announced that Rolfe will face 11 charges, including felony murder; Brosnan will face three charges, including aggravated assault. Brooks’s death had been ruled a homicide by a county medical examiner.
The incident has further galvanized anti-racism and police brutality protests in Atlanta, which had already seen large demonstrations in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis nearly three weeks prior.
According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), Atlanta police officers were called to the scene around 10:30 pm after receiving a complaint of a man sleeping in his vehicle, which was blocking the drive-through and forcing other cars to drive around it.
The police officers gave Brooks sobriety tests, and he failed, according to investigators. The GBI claimed in an initial statement released Saturday — based on body camera footage and police and witness accounts — that this is what transpired following the testing:
After failing the test, the officers attempted to place the male subject into custody. During the arrest, the male subject resisted and a struggle ensued. The officer deployed a Taser. Witnesses report that during the struggle the male subject grabbed and was in possession of the Taser. It has also been reported that the male subject was shot by an officer in the struggle over the Taser.
The GBI later reported in an update that it had obtained surveillance from Wendy’s and reviewed a viral video captured by a witness’s cellphone that was posted to social media, saying video evidence showed Brooks grabbing the Taser and pointing it at an officer.
“These new videos indicate that during a physical struggle with officers, Brooks obtained one of the officer’s Tasers and began to flee from the scene,” the statement reads. “Officers pursued Brooks on foot and during the chase, Brooks turned and pointed the Taser at the officer. The officer fired his weapon, striking Brooks.”
What videos show about Brooks’s shooting
Taken together, that viral video, body camera footage, dash cam clips, and video from one of the restaurant’s surveillance cameras provide a more complete picture of the incident.
The body camera clips show the first part of the encounter. Brosnan, an officer who joined the police department in 2018, is the first law enforcement official on the scene. His body camera shows him going up to Brooks’s car and banging on the window until Brooks wakes up and opens the door. Brooks tells Brosnan he doesn’t need medical attention and is just tired; Brosnan tells him to park and take a nap.
Brosnan returns to his squad car, saying, “I don’t want to deal with this dude right now.” When he returns, Brooks tells the officer he is in the area visiting his mother’s grave and marking a series of birthdays, including his own and his girlfriend’s. Throughout the encounter, he appears slightly disoriented, unsure of exactly where he is. When Rolfe arrives and takes over the interview, Brooks said, “Mr. Rolfe, I couldn’t focus,” after telling the officer that he’s not feeling well and suggesting he rest more in his car.
Brooks takes a field sobriety test. Rolfe then tries to get Brooks to agree to a breathalyzer test, as Brooks repeatedly offers to leave his car parked and walk to his sister’s home, which he says is nearby. After a few minutes of discussion, Brooks agrees to the test, saying, “I don’t want to refuse anything.”
That test showed Brooks had a blood alcohol level of about .02 above the legal limit, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
After looking at the test results, Rolfe says, “I think you’ve had too much to drink to be driving,” and tells Brooks to put his hands behind his back. Brooks begins to do so, then leans forward — Rolfe and Brosnan grab his arms, and he begins to twist away from them.
It is difficult to tell what happens next from the officers’ body cameras, but dash camera clips show both officers tackling Brooks to the ground, then piling on top of him. Brooks continues to wiggle, and the officers yell, “Stop fighting, stop fighting,” and “You’re going to get Tased!”
Brooks says, “Mr. Rolfe,” as the men roll on the ground; the viral video shows this part of the struggle, and what appears to be an exchange of blows. The dash cam video shows Brooks standing after a time, a Taser in his hand. Rolfe appears to discharge his Taser; Brooks then turns and runs.
Surveillance camera video slowed down by the New York Times shows what happens next in exacting detail: Brooks, still running, begins to turn, the hand holding the Taser raised. He fires his Taser, but it does not connect with Rolfe, who draws his handgun and fires three shots. Brooks falls to the ground, not moving.
The officers seem to stand over the body as witnesses film with their phones. After about two minutes, one officer jogs back to the squad car as more police arrive. That officer returns with a bag and crouches next to Brooks; after about 10 minutes, an ambulance arrives and takes Brooks to a hospital, where he died after surgery, according to the GBI.
Brooks’s death has sparked new protests — and change in the Atlanta Police Department
Ahead of the release of the body camera footage, Brooks’s family had challenged the official account of what happened. Saturday, an attorney for the family, L. Chris Stewart, said according to interviews his office conducted with witnesses, Rolfe and his partner did not give Brooks a sobriety test. The recently released clips show that Brooks did indeed have two sobriety tests, but back up another claim Stewart made — that the encounter began with Brooks in “civil” conversation with law enforcement outside his car.
At a Saturday press conference, Stewart also stressed that Brooks was unarmed until he took the Taser, and noted the weapon is nonlethal, saying, “[Rolfe’s] life was not in immediate harm when he fired that shot.”
And the lawyer said that video of the officers near Brooks in the first few minutes after the shooting does not show them checking on him, but instead collecting bullet casings — Stewart claims that it was not until an officer returned from his squad car with a bag, roughly two minutes after the shooting, that Brooks had his pulse checked.
The lethal shooting comes amid weeks of nationwide protests that began after a now-former Minneapolis police officer killed an unarmed black man, George Floyd, by pinning his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes. And it follows a series of police shootings in Georgia — Brooks’s killing is the 48th officer-involved shooting that the GBI has been called upon to investigate so far this year.
Ahead of his death, protesters gathered in the city as part of that nationwide movement; early Saturday, they gathered outside the Wendy’s where Brooks was killed, chanting, “No justice, no peace.”
HAPPENING NOW: Dozens of people have gathered at a scene where Atlanta Police along with GBI are investigating an officer involved shooting. @cbs46 pic.twitter.com/OqaZBJY7XQ — Aiun Nettles (@godfamilytravel) June 13, 2020
Protests continued throughout Saturday, and at the Wendy’s, Decatur Redd, a relative of Brooks, expressed shock to reporters.
“I’ve watched this on the internet, from the whole George Floyd situation, to us coming together like we’re doing — and this whole thing landed on my doorstep with my little cousin,” Redd said, according to CNN. “I thought Atlanta was higher than that. I thought Atlanta was bigger than that.”
Rev. James Woodall, state president of the Georgia NAACP, called for Shields to be fired.
“This is not the first time a black man has been killed for sleeping,” Woodall said, according to the Washington Post. “While Atlanta is often called ‘the Black Mecca,’ the Atlanta Police Department has a continued history of antagonizing our communities.”
Shields responded to this demand, and those of other activists, by tendering her resignation Saturday afternoon.
“Because of her desire that Atlanta be a model of what meaningful reform should look like across this country, Chief Shields has offered to immediately step aside as police chief so that the city may move forward with urgency and rebuilding the trust that is desperately needed throughout our communities,” Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said at a press conference Saturday evening.
Stacey Abrams, a former gubernatorial candidate in Georgia, also called for action.
“The killing of #RayshardBrooks in Atlanta last night demands we severely restrict the use of deadly force,” Abrams tweeted. “Yes, investigations must be called for — but so too should accountability. Sleeping in a drive-thru must not end in death.”
Bottoms said she agreed Saturday — shortly after she called for Rolfe’s firing, he was terminated. Brosnan has been placed on administrative duty.
Demonstrations continued following that termination, with a gathering on an interstate and about 1,000 people protesting near the site of Brooks’s killing, according to the Atlanta Fire Department. During that protest, a fire broke out at the restaurant after agitators broke windows and threw fireworks inside, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The fire was put out by the department, and officers made a number of arrests.
Sunday, the Fulton County Medical examiner released a report on Brooks’s death that ruled his killing a homicide. The examiner stated that Brooks died after being shot in the back by two bullets, causing “organ injuries and blood loss.”
On Wednesday, Fulton District Attorney Paul Howard announced that Rolfe will be charged with felony murder, and Brosnan with aggravated assault. Both men have been asked to surrender by Thursday. Brosnan has also agreed to be a state’s witness, Howard said.


vox--2020-06-17--More than 70 employees at Mark Zuckerberg’s philanthropy say it needs to change how it deals with ra

More than 70 employees at Mark Zuckerberg’s philanthropy say it needs to change how it deals with race

More than 70 employees at Mark Zuckerberg ’ s philanthropy are calling for significant internal change at the organization to combat systemic racism .
It ’ s a rare display of activism inside the walls of a major charity .
Dozens of people who work on the education team at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative are asking Zuckerberg and his co-CEO , his wife Priscilla Chan , to commit to 12 changes that will make the philanthropy more inclusive as it spends millions to reform the American education system .
The proposals run the gamut from boosting the number of black @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to assembling an advisory group of people from historically marginalized backgrounds to advise CZI on its priorities .
But the real significance of the letter is that 74 people who work for Zuckerberg — 60 of whom are on CZI ’ s education team — are attaching their names to the public document , braving possible consequences .
Bottom-up activism is extremely rare in the world of philanthropy , even though is it becoming less so in Silicon Valley more broadly .
“ We acknowledge the impactful work that CZI has done recently @ @ @ @ @ @ @ industry-leading diversity stats .
But the deeper needs of this organization remain unaddressed — our call to action is for leadership to work directly with employees to address and implement the following , ” the employees wrote in the letter obtained by Recode .
“ Given that we are the technologists working with subject matter experts in this space , the bar of responsibility is high on our end to ensure what we design is not excluding people .
What side of history will this organization be on moving forward ?
” About @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are from any underrepresented group .
Raymonde Charles , a spokesperson for CZI ’ s education team , said that while “ racial equity is already a focus of some of our work ” — such as its efforts to boost the diversity of students who enter the sciences or its grants to certain diverse groups — CZI was “ committed to expanding beyond these efforts.
” “ We welcome feedback from our team members and have worked hard to create a safe environment for employees to make their voices heard , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ proud of the many CZI employees who have raised their hands in recent weeks to help in this new call to action.
” The letter , delivered to CZI leadership on Tuesday , comes about 10 days after a group of CZI-backed scientists — who , unlike these signatories , are not employed by CZI — sent Zuckerberg and Chan a letter protesting how Facebook has not taken any actions against President Donald Trump ’ s inflammatory posts on its platform .
The scientists said that allowing Trump to speak without proper fact-checking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are misleading or imply threats of violence , was “ antithetical ” to CZI ’ s mission .
Zuckerberg and Chan responded a few days later in a letter also obtained by Recode , in which they reiterated Facebook ’ s policies but said they were personally “ disgusted ” by Trump ’ s rhetoric on race .
A small handful of CZI employees signed the scientists ’ letter , too , but the letter delivered on Tuesday amounts to a far greater statement .
Zuckerberg has been a committed education reformer dating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ investment in Newark ’ s public school system , which has largely been judged as a failure .
CZI ’ s current education projects include work like Summit Learning , a technology platform for personalized learning .
Other requests raised in the CZI employees ’ letter include performing an audit of Summit ’ s curriculum to find possible ways to make it more culturally sensitive , standing up a process to review how CZI education products affect marginalized people , and to hold every team “ accountable for an equity goal the same @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We , the signatories of this letter , are calling for direct action , ” the letter concludes .
“ Show us you ’ re listening .
Take decisive action now.
” 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 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 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 .

More than 70 employees at Mark Zuckerberg’s philanthropy are calling for significant internal change at the organization to combat systemic racism. It’s a rare display of activism inside the walls of a major charity.
Dozens of people who work on the education team at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative are asking Zuckerberg and his co-CEO, his wife Priscilla Chan, to commit to 12 changes that will make the philanthropy more inclusive as it spends millions to reform the American education system. The proposals run the gamut from boosting the number of black leaders in CZI’s management ranks to assembling an advisory group of people from historically marginalized backgrounds to advise CZI on its priorities.
But the real significance of the letter is that 74 people who work for Zuckerberg — 60 of whom are on CZI’s education team — are attaching their names to the public document, braving possible consequences. Bottom-up activism is extremely rare in the world of philanthropy, even though is it becoming less so in Silicon Valley more broadly.
If you have a tip about something going on in Silicon Valley philanthropy, please feel free to email Teddy Schleifer at teddyschleifer@protonmail.com to reach him confidentially. You can also find him on Twitter at @teddyschleifer. He would be happy to provide his number for messaging apps like Signal, too.
“We acknowledge the impactful work that CZI has done recently, from our grants work to our industry-leading diversity stats. But the deeper needs of this organization remain unaddressed — our call to action is for leadership to work directly with employees to address and implement the following,” the employees wrote in the letter obtained by Recode. “Given that we are the technologists working with subject matter experts in this space, the bar of responsibility is high on our end to ensure what we design is not excluding people. What side of history will this organization be on moving forward?”
About a quarter of CZI’s leadership are from any underrepresented group. Raymonde Charles, a spokesperson for CZI’s education team, said that while “racial equity is already a focus of some of our work” — such as its efforts to boost the diversity of students who enter the sciences or its grants to certain diverse groups — CZI was “committed to expanding beyond these efforts.”
“We welcome feedback from our team members and have worked hard to create a safe environment for employees to make their voices heard,” Charles said. “We’re proud of the many CZI employees who have raised their hands in recent weeks to help in this new call to action.”
The letter, delivered to CZI leadership on Tuesday, comes about 10 days after a group of CZI-backed scientists — who, unlike these signatories, are not employed by CZI — sent Zuckerberg and Chan a letter protesting how Facebook has not taken any actions against President Donald Trump’s inflammatory posts on its platform. The scientists said that allowing Trump to speak without proper fact-checking or moderation, especially when his posts are misleading or imply threats of violence, was “antithetical” to CZI’s mission. Zuckerberg and Chan responded a few days later in a letter also obtained by Recode, in which they reiterated Facebook’s policies but said they were personally “disgusted” by Trump’s rhetoric on race.
A small handful of CZI employees signed the scientists’ letter, too, but the letter delivered on Tuesday amounts to a far greater statement.
Zuckerberg has been a committed education reformer dating back to his infamous $100 million investment in Newark’s public school system, which has largely been judged as a failure. CZI’s current education projects include work like Summit Learning, a technology platform for personalized learning.
Other requests raised in the CZI employees’ letter include performing an audit of Summit’s curriculum to find possible ways to make it more culturally sensitive, standing up a process to review how CZI education products affect marginalized people, and to hold every team “accountable for an equity goal the same way we do for quality.”
“We, the signatories of this letter, are calling for direct action,” the letter concludes. “Show us you’re listening. Take decisive action now.”


vox--2020-06-17--Civil rights organizations want advertisers to dump Facebook

Amid ongoing protests against police brutality and racism , a new campaign from organizations including the NAACP and the Anti-Defamation League is urging advertisers to pull their spending on Facebook ads for July , emphasizing the platform ’ s repeated failure to curb hateful and false content .
The campaign , which is called “ Stop Hate for Profit , ” is just the latest effort to hold Facebook accountable for how its platform enables and even benefits from racism and misinformation .
The organizations , which also include Color of Change , Common Sense , Sleeping Giants , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ where they say Facebook has failed .
They specifically point to the social network enabling “ incitement to violence against protesters ” amid recent anti-police brutality demonstrations ; its decision to make Breitbart a news source on its platform and to enlist the Daily Caller as a fact-checking partner ; its failure to remove Holocaust denial from the platform as a form of hate ; and allowing voting disinformation to target black voters .
The campaign , which was announced in a full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday , adopts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that have targeted specific shows and websites .
The advertising watchdog Sleeping Giants , which has helped launch similar campaigns against Fox News ’ s Tucker Carlson and Breitbart , is also supporting the Stop Hate for Profit effort .
For civil rights groups — some of which have tried to work alongside Facebook in the past — the approach marks a clear shift in focusing on the core of Facebook ’ s business .
“ We have been continually disappointed and stunned by Mark Zuckerberg ’ s commitment to protecting white supremacy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Facebook , ” said Color of Change president Rashad Robinson in a published statement .
“ A key way for major corporations to demand racial justice is to withhold their dollars until Facebook becomes more responsible and accountable to Black communities on the platform.
” The campaign follows news that Facebook will now allow users to turn off political ads as part of the platform ’ s larger effort to expand its voter outreach and information efforts .
That change followed intense internal debate among the social media platform ’ s employees over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ act against a post by President Donald Trump in which he wrote “ when the looting starts , the shooting starts ” about the protests in Minneapolis .
That message appeared to threaten violence against protesters and also echoed racist language used during the civil rights movement .
After Twitter labeled a tweet with the same statement as glorifying violence , Trump did attempt to walk back the phrasing , but Facebook ’ s refusal to take action against the content stirred internal dissent , including resignations and a virtual employee walkout .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ call between civil rights groups and Zuckerberg , after which leaders of those organizations said that the Facebook CEO ’ s explanation for permitting Trump ’ s posts to remain left them frustrated .
“ He did not demonstrate understanding of historic or modern-day voter suppression and he refuses to acknowledge how Facebook is facilitating Trump ’ s call for violence against protesters , ” they wrote .
Now the organizations behind Stop Hate for Profit are calling for specific changes to Facebook ’ s products .
These include establishing a “ threshold @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in which someone suffering harassment or hate can interact with an actual human who works at Facebook , as well as creating a specified content moderation pipeline for people who say they ’ re experiencing hate based on religion or race .
The organizations also want Facebook to make changes to how it generates revenue , including creating “ internal mechanisms ” that automatically remove ads on content that ’ s labeled as hateful or misleading and providing refunds to advertisers whose content ends up tagged to such violative content .
The Stop @ @ @ @ @ @ @ moderators affiliated with Facebook to be involved in any online group including more than 150 people and for the company to provide “ an internal mechanism to automatically flag content in private groups associated with extremist ideologies for human review.
” That comes following extensive reporting documenting how misinformation , including fake news about the coronavirus , can especially thrive in private groups .
In response to the campaign , a Facebook spokesperson seemed to emphasize its view that the company was in a difficult spot , though it ’ s yet to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ competing pressures every day when managing a platform , ” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement .
“ Our focus is to act on what is most important : removing hate speech and content that harms communities , while using our platform for efforts like providing authoritative information about registering to vote.
” Of course , how the Stop Hate for Profit campaign will spur change at Facebook is yet to be seen .
But since the cornerstone of Facebook ’ s business model is advertising , this new effort does aim @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Open Sourced is made possible by Omidyar Network .
All Open Sourced content is editorially independent and produced by our journalists .
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 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 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 .

Amid ongoing protests against police brutality and racism, a new campaign from organizations including the NAACP and the Anti-Defamation League is urging advertisers to pull their spending on Facebook ads for July, emphasizing the platform’s repeated failure to curb hateful and false content. The campaign, which is called “Stop Hate for Profit,” is just the latest effort to hold Facebook accountable for how its platform enables and even benefits from racism and misinformation.
The organizations, which also include Color of Change, Common Sense, Sleeping Giants, and Free Press, point to several examples where they say Facebook has failed. They specifically point to the social network enabling “incitement to violence against protesters” amid recent anti-police brutality demonstrations; its decision to make Breitbart a news source on its platform and to enlist the Daily Caller as a fact-checking partner; its failure to remove Holocaust denial from the platform as a form of hate; and allowing voting disinformation to target black voters.
The campaign, which was announced in a full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday, adopts a similar approach as previous advertiser-focused efforts that have targeted specific shows and websites. The advertising watchdog Sleeping Giants, which has helped launch similar campaigns against Fox News’s Tucker Carlson and Breitbart, is also supporting the Stop Hate for Profit effort. For civil rights groups — some of which have tried to work alongside Facebook in the past — the approach marks a clear shift in focusing on the core of Facebook’s business.
“We have been continually disappointed and stunned by Mark Zuckerberg’s commitment to protecting white supremacy, voter suppression and outright lies on Facebook,” said Color of Change president Rashad Robinson in a published statement. “A key way for major corporations to demand racial justice is to withhold their dollars until Facebook becomes more responsible and accountable to Black communities on the platform.”
The campaign follows news that Facebook will now allow users to turn off political ads as part of the platform’s larger effort to expand its voter outreach and information efforts. That change followed intense internal debate among the social media platform’s employees over the company’s decision not to act against a post by President Donald Trump in which he wrote “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” about the protests in Minneapolis. That message appeared to threaten violence against protesters and also echoed racist language used during the civil rights movement.
After Twitter labeled a tweet with the same statement as glorifying violence, Trump did attempt to walk back the phrasing, but Facebook’s refusal to take action against the content stirred internal dissent, including resignations and a virtual employee walkout. Facebook’s decision also prompted a call between civil rights groups and Zuckerberg, after which leaders of those organizations said that the Facebook CEO’s explanation for permitting Trump’s posts to remain left them frustrated. “He did not demonstrate understanding of historic or modern-day voter suppression and he refuses to acknowledge how Facebook is facilitating Trump’s call for violence against protesters,” they wrote.
Now the organizations behind Stop Hate for Profit are calling for specific changes to Facebook’s products. These include establishing a “threshold of harm on the platform,” in which someone suffering harassment or hate can interact with an actual human who works at Facebook, as well as creating a specified content moderation pipeline for people who say they’re experiencing hate based on religion or race.
The organizations also want Facebook to make changes to how it generates revenue, including creating “internal mechanisms” that automatically remove ads on content that’s labeled as hateful or misleading and providing refunds to advertisers whose content ends up tagged to such violative content.
The Stop Hate for Profit campaign also calls for moderators affiliated with Facebook to be involved in any online group including more than 150 people and for the company to provide “an internal mechanism to automatically flag content in private groups associated with extremist ideologies for human review.” That comes following extensive reporting documenting how misinformation, including fake news about the coronavirus, can especially thrive in private groups.
In response to the campaign, a Facebook spokesperson seemed to emphasize its view that the company was in a difficult spot, though it’s yet to generate widespread sympathy.
“There are competing pressures every day when managing a platform,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “Our focus is to act on what is most important: removing hate speech and content that harms communities, while using our platform for efforts like providing authoritative information about registering to vote.”
Of course, how the Stop Hate for Profit campaign will spur change at Facebook is yet to be seen. But since the cornerstone of Facebook’s business model is advertising, this new effort does aim to hit the company where it hurts.
Open Sourced is made possible by Omidyar Network. All Open Sourced content is editorially independent and produced by our journalists.


vox--2020-06-17--A new paper finds stimulus checks, small business aid, and “reopening” can’t rescue the economy

The coronavirus pandemic ripped through the American economy at an incredibly rapid pace — so rapidly that it ’ s been difficult for economists and others to understand what exactly is going on .
Our best data sources about the economy are wildly out of date : Unemployment data comes out just once a month , and GDP data only four times a year .
However , a new data source put together by a research group at Harvard , drawing on a variety of corporations ’ private data , now allows economists to track what has happened to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they collated shows that the economic crash has been driven disproportionately by the actions of high-income Americans , whose consumer spending has crashed more than that of poorer Americans , devastating low-income workers and small businesses in rich areas .
The data also suggests that economic relief measures have done little for small businesses : Stimulus spending tended to go to Amazon or Walmart , not small local stores , and small businesses eligible for Paycheck Protection Program ( PPP ) loans are generally not any better off than ones that were not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ data found official orders “ reopening ” states do not increase economic activity , and so appear to endanger public health without any economic benefit .
The picture that emerges in a new working paper based on the economists ’ findings is of an economy frozen in place .
Simply declaring the economy “ reopened ” does not seem to do anything to spur high-income people to spend more , and it ’ s not clear that anything can until the real threat passes .
The tool , the Opportunity Insights Economic Tracker @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Insights group .
The research was led by Raj Chetty , Nathaniel Hendren , John N. Friedman , and Michael Stepner , and the tool was assembled by a team of 39 collaborators .
It aims to provide a service that has never existed before , but is badly needed during the pandemic : a real-time , day-by-day , ZIP-code-by-ZIP-code snapshot of how the American economy is performing .
The tool works by collating administrative data from a variety of corporations , including Affinity Solutions ( a company tracking consumer spending ) , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ company ) , Earnin ( an app that offers advance loans on paychecks ) , and HomeBase ( which sells punch-card and work check-in software ) , among several others .
The data Opportunity Insights gathers from these companies is anonymized ; the Economic Tracker can ’ t track individual people for privacy reasons .
But the data from these companies matches gold-standard government surveys to a remarkable degree .
Affinity captures about 10 percent of credit and debit card transactions in the US , and its records are biased toward goods that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than cash .
Nonetheless , Chetty and his co-authors found that Affinity ’ s data aligned almost perfectly with the Monthly Retail Trade Survey conducted by the Census Bureau , which serves as the basis for the Bureau of Economic Analysis ’ s official GDP numbers .
The blue lines below are consumer spending as measured by Affinity , for all consumer spending ( on the left ) and just food services ( on the right ) .
The green lines are the MRTS .
If you have a hard time telling the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ point : Similarly , using data from ADP , a large payroll processor , alongside Earnin and HomeBase data provides a decent approximation of the Current Employment Statistics survey used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics .
It ’ s by no means perfect , and the authors are clear that its imprecisions may be more important in normal times ( when jumping between 4 and 6 percent unemployment is a huge deal ) than now ( when the difference between 14 and 16 percent unemployment feels rather less meaningful ) .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that you would typically only see conducted many years after a crisis like this .
You can , for instance , compare how small business revenue has fallen between neighborhoods .
Here ’ s what DC looks like , for instance .
Businesses in the wealthy central business area have seen huge declines , while poorer ZIP codes like 20020 ( which contains the historic but poor Anacostia neighborhood ) and 20011 ( which contains both poor and gentrifying neighborhoods in the northern part of the city ) have seen business revenue actually @ @ @ @ @ @ @ business revenue in your own area using the interactive below , best viewed on a larger screen : And you can do the same for employment data here : The development of the OI Economic Tracker in some ways parallels the creation of “ national accounts ” data like GDP statistics .
That effort began in earnest in the United States in the early 1930s at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge , Massachusetts , under the supervision of Penn professor and future Nobel laureate Simon Kuznets .
Eventually , Kuznets @ @ @ @ @ @ @ federal government and they form the basis of our official economic statistics today .
“ In the Great Depression , they wanted to measure things with more regularity and Kuznets decided to take this on , ” Chetty told me .
“ That ’ s the basis of what you see in the Bureau of Economic Analysis data .
Going forward , this is the basis of how you could do this without surveys.
” Chetty tells me OI is in talks with Intuit , whose TurboTax and Mint programs are home to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Mastercard to provide even more sources on consumer spending and incomes .
He hopes eventually that a tool like this , with bigger and more representative data sources , could become a province of the government , just as Kuznets ’ s idea of regularly measuring the total national income of the United States went from a private academic endeavor to the official business of the federal government .
In the meantime , the OI Economic tracker can give us important insights into which policies are and are not working during the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Friedman , Hendren , and Stepner suggests that small business loans and stimulus checks haven ’ t been enough to keep small businesses afloat , especially in affluent areas .
Indeed , it suggests that any kind of recovery is likely impossible until the pandemic is over .
What ’ s needed is income support in the form of unemployment insurance or some other program for people put out of work who are struggling to afford food and rent .
Only once the pandemic is well and truly behind us is a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the paper ’ s five key findings could justify an individual research paper ; this relatively short paper covers all five , and more .
Spending has collapsed dramatically since the Covid-19 crisis began .
But it didn ’ t fall evenly .
The data in the OI Economic Tracker indicates that by May 31 , 66 percent of the fall in credit card expenditures since January was concentrated in the top 25 percent of households by income .
The bottom quartile , by contrast , was basically back to precrisis spending patterns @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people spend more overall than low-income people , as you ’ d expect , including more on in-person services .
Those factors combined with a higher percentage-wise drop in overall spending meant that the large majority of the drop in spending is attributable to the wealthiest segment of the population .
These spending changes seem to be correlated varying levels of Covid-19 infection between ZIP codes , as well .
“ Spending fell sharply on March 15 , when the National Emergency was declared and the threat of COVID became widely discussed in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ find .
Where people changed their spending was heavily influenced by restrictions on in-person interaction .
“ Nearly three-fourths of the reduction in spending is accounted for by reduced spending on goods or services that require in-person physical interaction ( and thereby carry a risk of COVID infection ) , such as hotels , transportation , and food services , ” the authors find , despite the fact that these categories only made up one-third of consumer spending before the crash .
“ pending on luxury goods such as installation of home pools @ @ @ @ @ @ @ require physical contact — increased slightly after the COVID shock.
” Similarly , ZIP codes with higher rates of Covid-19 infection saw sharper reductions in spending .
The mechanism here is simple : People in areas with higher Covid-19 caseloads spent less time outside ( as verified by Google cellphone data ) , and this translated into less spending on in-person services .
What ’ s more , the authors find that regardless of the level of Covid-19 infection in an area , high-income people spent less time outside than lower-income people .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ this might be ; high-income people are likelier to have jobs where they can work from home and have larger living spaces that they can enjoy .
But this all combines to help explain why spending fell so much among higher-income households , in particular .
2 ) Those who serve the rich are suffering most Housing in the United States is heavily segregated by income : There are rich neighborhoods and poor neighborhoods of cities , rich suburbs and poor suburbs , more and less affluent rural communities .
So it stands @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in richer areas , like baristas or waitstaff or hotel cleaners , might have suffered more than their counterparts in poorer areas , given the sharper reduction in spending by the rich .
So the authors look at data from Womply , a business software company that offers credit card transaction tracking for small businesses .
Sure enough , the biggest losses are recorded in the richest neighborhoods of major cities : Overall , 55 percent of small businesses in ZIP codes with the highest apartment rents closed , compared to 40 percent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ codes .
The shock to these businesses was tremendous : Not only did they face higher fixed costs to begin with due to high rents , but the greater collapse in spending by the rich pummeled their revenue more .
This flows through to service workers employed in these high-rent , high-income areas ( but who likely live in poorer , lower-rent neighborhoods that they can afford ) .
Hours worked fell by more than 80 percent in the richest ZIP codes of New York , San Francisco , and Chicago , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ codes of those cities .
A similar pattern emerges for outright job losses : In the data from Earnin , the paycheck advance company , 36 percent of job losses are in ZIP codes in the top quartile by rent , and 11 percent in ZIP codes that fall in the bottom quartile by rent .
Same goes for job postings for lower-skilled workers in high versus low-rent areas .
Tellingly , no such pattern in job postings emerges for workers with college degrees , suggesting that the pain here is concentrated among @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
This then flows through to consumer spending .
The charts below look exclusively at low-income ZIP codes , and compare ZIP codes where more workers work in high-rent , affluent areas to ones where fewer workers work in rich areas .
The more people in the ZIP code worked in rich areas , the worse off they were , both in terms of hours worked and consumer spending : For more on this phenomenon , see Emily Badger and Alicia Parlapiano ’ s excellent piece in the New York Times based on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ talked to service workers in NYC and DC who worked in higher-income neighborhoods and have seen hours and tips dry up .
3 ) Stimulus checks kept people afloat , but not small businesses One interesting aspect of this downturn is that while unemployment has skyrocketed , individual incomes have too .
In April , personal income ( defined as the money Americans receive from wages , government benefits , investments , and so on ) grew by 10.5 percent , by far the highest monthly growth rate in the metric ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up from 4.4 percent to 14.7 percent that same month .
This is largely due to the CARES Act , Congress ’ s relief measure that included both a $ 1,200 per person stimulus check to most Americans and a super-sized unemployment benefit package that boosted UI benefits by $ 600 a week .
Chetty , Friedman , Hendren , and Stepner are able to see what effect the stimulus checks specifically had because the Earnin data indicates that the large majority of people ( over 70 percent ) got their $ 1,200 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exactly ; a small minority arrived on April 14 as well .
That allows the authors to test how the stimulus affected households by comparing spending on April 13 to April 15 .
This is a variant on what ’ s called a “ regression discontinuity ” approach in social sciences , and it ’ s one of the higher-quality tools we have for testing what effects a policy actually caused , as opposed to what happened around the same time .
Sure enough , spending jumped modestly for high-income households ( by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ low-income households ( by 26 percentage points ) over the two days that the stimulus package was implemented .
The blue line above is the poorest 25 percent of Americans by income , the green line the richest .
Both saw spending fall sharply upon the onset of the crisis , but almost instantaneously the stimulus caused spending to bounce back .
It just bounced back much , much more for the poorest Americans , nearly back to precrisis levels .
But looking at how people spent their stimulus checks reveals some limitations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ boost the economy .
Spending on in-person services only rose 7 percentage points , whereas spending on durable goods ( furniture , cars , TVs , computers , etc . )
grew a startling 21 percentage points , accounting for nearly half the recovery in spending .
What ’ s more , the authors find little effect of the stimulus on small business revenues , and absolutely no effect on small business employment .
Small businesses tend disproportionately to sell goods and services in-person , and a disproportionate share of their revenue comes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which was both less meaningful for wealthy people and came at a time when people were understandably afraid to leave their homes , did little to help them .
It ’ s not necessarily an indictment of the stimulus package that it didn ’ t help small businesses .
It wasn ’ t meant to — it was meant to help poor Americans , especially , get by and survive amid this calamity .
And at that job , it excelled .
The program meant to help small businesses was the Paycheck @ @ @ @ @ @ @ offers forgivable loans to small businesses that keep the majority of their staff on payroll .
But Chetty , Friedman , Hendren , and Stepner find little evidence that this program was effective .
PPP is administered to Small Business Administration ( SBA ) -eligible businesses , which with a few minor exceptions means businesses with 500 or fewer employees .
So the authors are able to compare businesses with total employee counts just below and just above these thresholds , who likely closely resembled each other with the exception of one group @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the other not .
Here is how hours worked at small businesses evolved , at different levels of small business size : In the immortal words of Pam Beesly : They ’ re the same picture .
Employers with around 1,500 employees reduced hours ever so slightly more by the end of May than businesses with fewer employees , but the difference is minuscule , and goes away entirely if you limit the analysis to food and hospitality businesses that PPP was particularly designed to help .
“ We conclude that the PPP @ @ @ @ @ @ @ small businesses , at least as measured through the middle of May , ” the authors write .
So if stimulus checks and PPP loans aren ’ t enough to keep employment at small businesses afloat , maybe declaring the crisis over could ?
That ’ s the intuition behind politicians nationwide , led by President Donald Trump who are pushing for a “ reopening , ” and have succeeded in rolling back stay-at-home orders in a number of states .
But this only works if the order to reopen actually spurs consumers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who ’ ve cut back spending the most , to go out and buy the in-person goods and services they ’ ve been shunning .
The OI Economic Tracker data let the authors test precisely if that ’ s happening .
First the authors compared Minnesota ( which did an early partial reopening on April 27 ) to Wisconsin ( which did so on May 13 in response to a court order ) .
As you can see , despite very different reopening timing , the trajectories of the two states was nearly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and the orders themselves didn ’ t seem to do much .
Then the authors expanded this analysis to a total of 20 states that issued reopening orders prior to May 4 ; for each reopening date , they paired these states with control states that didn ’ t reopen , and that prior to reopening had a similar trajectory in employment or consumer spending .
The authors find that consumer spending was growing before formal reopening and kept growing after ; it ’ s possible the reopening caused some of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ employment did not rise at all in the reopened states .
“ The implication of this finding is that restoring confidence in public health may be a prerequisite to a full recovery , ” the authors conclude .
That was true in 1919 during the Spanish flu , and it seems to be true again today .
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 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

This story was originally published on June 17, 2020, and some details may be out of date. For Vox’s latest coverage on the pandemic, visit our coronavirus hub.
The coronavirus pandemic ripped through the American economy at an incredibly rapid pace — so rapidly that it’s been difficult for economists and others to understand what exactly is going on.
Our best data sources about the economy are wildly out of date: Unemployment data comes out just once a month, and GDP data only four times a year. However, a new data source put together by a research group at Harvard, drawing on a variety of corporations’ private data, now allows economists to track what has happened to the economy in real time.
The data they collated shows that the economic crash has been driven disproportionately by the actions of high-income Americans, whose consumer spending has crashed more than that of poorer Americans, devastating low-income workers and small businesses in rich areas.
The data also suggests that economic relief measures have done little for small businesses: Stimulus spending tended to go to Amazon or Walmart, not small local stores, and small businesses eligible for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans are generally not any better off than ones that were not eligible.
And researchers who developed the data found official orders “reopening” states do not increase economic activity, and so appear to endanger public health without any economic benefit.
The picture that emerges in a new working paper based on the economists’ findings is of an economy frozen in place. Simply declaring the economy “reopened” does not seem to do anything to spur high-income people to spend more, and it’s not clear that anything can until the real threat passes.
The tool, the Opportunity Insights Economic Tracker, was launched by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights group. The research was led by Raj Chetty, Nathaniel Hendren, John N. Friedman, and Michael Stepner, and the tool was assembled by a team of 39 collaborators. It aims to provide a service that has never existed before, but is badly needed during the pandemic: a real-time, day-by-day, ZIP-code-by-ZIP-code snapshot of how the American economy is performing.
The tool works by collating administrative data from a variety of corporations, including Affinity Solutions (a company tracking consumer spending), Burning Glass (a job market analytics company), Earnin (an app that offers advance loans on paychecks), and HomeBase (which sells punch-card and work check-in software), among several others.
The data Opportunity Insights gathers from these companies is anonymized; the Economic Tracker can’t track individual people for privacy reasons. But the data from these companies matches gold-standard government surveys to a remarkable degree. Affinity captures about 10 percent of credit and debit card transactions in the US, and its records are biased toward goods that tend to be purchased with cards rather than cash.
Nonetheless, Chetty and his co-authors found that Affinity’s data aligned almost perfectly with the Monthly Retail Trade Survey conducted by the Census Bureau, which serves as the basis for the Bureau of Economic Analysis’s official GDP numbers.
The blue lines below are consumer spending as measured by Affinity, for all consumer spending (on the left) and just food services (on the right). The green lines are the MRTS. If you have a hard time telling the lines apart, that’s the point:
Similarly, using data from ADP, a large payroll processor, alongside Earnin and HomeBase data provides a decent approximation of the Current Employment Statistics survey used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It’s by no means perfect, and the authors are clear that its imprecisions may be more important in normal times (when jumping between 4 and 6 percent unemployment is a huge deal) than now (when the difference between 14 and 16 percent unemployment feels rather less meaningful).
But the data nonetheless allows for striking analyses that you would typically only see conducted many years after a crisis like this.
You can, for instance, compare how small business revenue has fallen between neighborhoods. Here’s what DC looks like, for instance. Businesses in the wealthy central business area have seen huge declines, while poorer ZIP codes like 20020 (which contains the historic but poor Anacostia neighborhood) and 20011 (which contains both poor and gentrifying neighborhoods in the northern part of the city) have seen business revenue actually increase:
The development of the OI Economic Tracker in some ways parallels the creation of “national accounts” data like GDP statistics. That effort began in earnest in the United States in the early 1930s at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, under the supervision of Penn professor and future Nobel laureate Simon Kuznets. Eventually, Kuznets’s methods were adopted by the federal government and they form the basis of our official economic statistics today.
“In the Great Depression, they wanted to measure things with more regularity and Kuznets decided to take this on,” Chetty told me. “That’s the basis of what you see in the Bureau of Economic Analysis data. Going forward, this is the basis of how you could do this without surveys.”
Chetty tells me OI is in talks with Intuit, whose TurboTax and Mint programs are home to vast reams of individual financial data, and Mastercard to provide even more sources on consumer spending and incomes. He hopes eventually that a tool like this, with bigger and more representative data sources, could become a province of the government, just as Kuznets’s idea of regularly measuring the total national income of the United States went from a private academic endeavor to the official business of the federal government.
In the meantime, the OI Economic tracker can give us important insights into which policies are and are not working during the Covid-19 recovery. The paper by Chetty, Friedman, Hendren, and Stepner suggests that small business loans and stimulus checks haven’t been enough to keep small businesses afloat, especially in affluent areas. Indeed, it suggests that any kind of recovery is likely impossible until the pandemic is over. What’s needed is income support in the form of unemployment insurance or some other program for people put out of work who are struggling to afford food and rent. Only once the pandemic is well and truly behind us is a regular recovery possible.
Any one of the paper’s five key findings could justify an individual research paper; this relatively short paper covers all five, and more.
1) The high-income recession
Spending has collapsed dramatically since the Covid-19 crisis began. But it didn’t fall evenly. The data in the OI Economic Tracker indicates that by May 31, 66 percent of the fall in credit card expenditures since January was concentrated in the top 25 percent of households by income. The bottom quartile, by contrast, was basically back to precrisis spending patterns by the end of May:
High-income people spend more overall than low-income people, as you’d expect, including more on in-person services. Those factors combined with a higher percentage-wise drop in overall spending meant that the large majority of the drop in spending is attributable to the wealthiest segment of the population.
These spending changes seem to be correlated varying levels of Covid-19 infection between ZIP codes, as well. “Spending fell sharply on March 15, when the National Emergency was declared and the threat of COVID became widely discussed in the United States,” the authors find.
Where people changed their spending was heavily influenced by restrictions on in-person interaction.
“Nearly three-fourths of the reduction in spending is accounted for by reduced spending on goods or services that require in-person physical interaction (and thereby carry a risk of COVID infection), such as hotels, transportation, and food services,” the authors find, despite the fact that these categories only made up one-third of consumer spending before the crash. “pending on luxury goods such as installation of home pools and landscaping services — which do not require physical contact — increased slightly after the COVID shock.”
Similarly, ZIP codes with higher rates of Covid-19 infection saw sharper reductions in spending. The mechanism here is simple: People in areas with higher Covid-19 caseloads spent less time outside (as verified by Google cellphone data), and this translated into less spending on in-person services. What’s more, the authors find that regardless of the level of Covid-19 infection in an area, high-income people spent less time outside than lower-income people.
There are a number of reasons why this might be; high-income people are likelier to have jobs where they can work from home and have larger living spaces that they can enjoy. But this all combines to help explain why spending fell so much among higher-income households, in particular.
2) Those who serve the rich are suffering most
Housing in the United States is heavily segregated by income: There are rich neighborhoods and poor neighborhoods of cities, rich suburbs and poor suburbs, more and less affluent rural communities. So it stands to reason that people providing in-person services in richer areas, like baristas or waitstaff or hotel cleaners, might have suffered more than their counterparts in poorer areas, given the sharper reduction in spending by the rich.
So the authors look at data from Womply, a business software company that offers credit card transaction tracking for small businesses. Sure enough, the biggest losses are recorded in the richest neighborhoods of major cities:
Small businesses lost 73% of their revenue in the Upper East Side in New York, compared with 14% in the East Bronx; 67% in Lincoln Park vs. 38% in Bronzeville on the South Side of Chicago; and 88% in Nob Hill vs. 37% in Bayview in San Francisco. Revenue losses are also large in the central business districts in each city (lower Manhattan, the Loop in Chicago, the Financial District in San Francisco), likely a direct consequence of the fact that many workers who used to work in these areas are now working remotely. But even within predominantly residential areas, businesses located in more affluent neighborhoods suffered much larger revenue losses.
Overall, 55 percent of small businesses in ZIP codes with the highest apartment rents closed, compared to 40 percent of small businesses in the lowest-rent ZIP codes. The shock to these businesses was tremendous: Not only did they face higher fixed costs to begin with due to high rents, but the greater collapse in spending by the rich pummeled their revenue more.
This flows through to service workers employed in these high-rent, high-income areas (but who likely live in poorer, lower-rent neighborhoods that they can afford). Hours worked fell by more than 80 percent in the richest ZIP codes of New York, San Francisco, and Chicago, and only 30 percent in the poorest ZIP codes of those cities.
A similar pattern emerges for outright job losses: In the data from Earnin, the paycheck advance company, 36 percent of job losses are in ZIP codes in the top quartile by rent, and 11 percent in ZIP codes that fall in the bottom quartile by rent. Same goes for job postings for lower-skilled workers in high versus low-rent areas. Tellingly, no such pattern in job postings emerges for workers with college degrees, suggesting that the pain here is concentrated among lower-income people who work in rich neighborhoods.
This then flows through to consumer spending. The charts below look exclusively at low-income ZIP codes, and compare ZIP codes where more workers work in high-rent, affluent areas to ones where fewer workers work in rich areas. The more people in the ZIP code worked in rich areas, the worse off they were, both in terms of hours worked and consumer spending:
For more on this phenomenon, see Emily Badger and Alicia Parlapiano’s excellent piece in the New York Times based on the OI Economic Tracker data. They talked to service workers in NYC and DC who worked in higher-income neighborhoods and have seen hours and tips dry up.
3) Stimulus checks kept people afloat, but not small businesses
One interesting aspect of this downturn is that while unemployment has skyrocketed, individual incomes have too. In April, personal income (defined as the money Americans receive from wages, government benefits, investments, and so on) grew by 10.5 percent, by far the highest monthly growth rate in the metric’s 60-year history, even as unemployment shot up from 4.4 percent to 14.7 percent that same month.
This is largely due to the CARES Act, Congress’s relief measure that included both a $1,200 per person stimulus check to most Americans and a super-sized unemployment benefit package that boosted UI benefits by $600 a week.
Chetty, Friedman, Hendren, and Stepner are able to see what effect the stimulus checks specifically had because the Earnin data indicates that the large majority of people (over 70 percent) got their $1,200 from the IRS on April 15, exactly; a small minority arrived on April 14 as well. That allows the authors to test how the stimulus affected households by comparing spending on April 13 to April 15. This is a variant on what’s called a “regression discontinuity” approach in social sciences, and it’s one of the higher-quality tools we have for testing what effects a policy actually caused, as opposed to what happened around the same time.
Sure enough, spending jumped modestly for high-income households (by 9 percentage points) and enormously for low-income households (by 26 percentage points) over the two days that the stimulus package was implemented.
The blue line above is the poorest 25 percent of Americans by income, the green line the richest. Both saw spending fall sharply upon the onset of the crisis, but almost instantaneously the stimulus caused spending to bounce back. It just bounced back much, much more for the poorest Americans, nearly back to precrisis levels.
But looking at how people spent their stimulus checks reveals some limitations of the policy’s ability to boost the economy. Spending on in-person services only rose 7 percentage points, whereas spending on durable goods (furniture, cars, TVs, computers, etc.) grew a startling 21 percentage points, accounting for nearly half the recovery in spending.
What’s more, the authors find little effect of the stimulus on small business revenues, and absolutely no effect on small business employment. Small businesses tend disproportionately to sell goods and services in-person, and a disproportionate share of their revenue comes from wealthy people. So the stimulus, which was both less meaningful for wealthy people and came at a time when people were understandably afraid to leave their homes, did little to help them.
4) Paycheck Protection didn’t do much
It’s not necessarily an indictment of the stimulus package that it didn’t help small businesses. It wasn’t meant to — it was meant to help poor Americans, especially, get by and survive amid this calamity. And at that job, it excelled.
The program meant to help small businesses was the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which offers forgivable loans to small businesses that keep the majority of their staff on payroll. But Chetty, Friedman, Hendren, and Stepner find little evidence that this program was effective.
PPP is administered to Small Business Administration (SBA)-eligible businesses, which with a few minor exceptions means businesses with 500 or fewer employees. So the authors are able to compare businesses with total employee counts just below and just above these thresholds, who likely closely resembled each other with the exception of one group being eligible for PPP loans, and the other not.
Here is how hours worked at small businesses evolved, at different levels of small business size:
In the immortal words of Pam Beesly: They’re the same picture.
Employers with around 1,500 employees reduced hours ever so slightly more by the end of May than businesses with fewer employees, but the difference is minuscule, and goes away entirely if you limit the analysis to food and hospitality businesses that PPP was particularly designed to help. “We conclude that the PPP had no meaningful effect on unemployment at small businesses, at least as measured through the middle of May,” the authors write.
5) Reopening orders don’t actually reopen the economy
So if stimulus checks and PPP loans aren’t enough to keep employment at small businesses afloat, maybe declaring the crisis over could? That’s the intuition behind politicians nationwide, led by President Donald Trump who are pushing for a “reopening,” and have succeeded in rolling back stay-at-home orders in a number of states.
But this only works if the order to reopen actually spurs consumers, and in particular the wealthy consumers who’ve cut back spending the most, to go out and buy the in-person goods and services they’ve been shunning. The OI Economic Tracker data let the authors test precisely if that’s happening.
First the authors compared Minnesota (which did an early partial reopening on April 27) to Wisconsin (which did so on May 13 in response to a court order). As you can see, despite very different reopening timing, the trajectories of the two states was nearly identical when it comes to consumer spending, and the orders themselves didn’t seem to do much.
Then the authors expanded this analysis to a total of 20 states that issued reopening orders prior to May 4; for each reopening date, they paired these states with control states that didn’t reopen, and that prior to reopening had a similar trajectory in employment or consumer spending. The authors find that consumer spending was growing before formal reopening and kept growing after; it’s possible the reopening caused some of the boost. But in any case, employment did not rise at all in the reopened states.
“The implication of this finding is that restoring confidence in public health may be a prerequisite to a full recovery,” the authors conclude. That was true in 1919 during the Spanish flu, and it seems to be true again today.