America's Recovery Needs Young Workers, COVID-19 Mortality Rates, and More

May 9, 2020

We can't recover from a coronavirus recession without helping young workers

In the United States, nearly half of low-wage young adults without a college degree work in sectors immediately impacted by COVID-19. Martha Ross and Nicole Bateman write that preventing economic disaster for young workers is just as important—and could be a complement to—financial relief for businesses.

The unreal dichotomy in COVID-19 mortality between high-income and developing countries

Just five high-income countries—the United States, Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, and France—account for 70% of reported COVID-19 deaths across the world. Philip Schellekens and Diego Sourrouille write that inaccurate data and a lack of reporting mechanisms from developing countries is likely the main culprit as to why the true death toll is not reflected in the statistics.

The CARES Act risks becoming a caste act. Here's how we change that.

Black Americans are bearing the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic with disproportionate rates of contractions and deaths. Rashawn Ray, Jesse Jackson, and S. Todd Yeary argue that the CARES Act does not go far enough in helping and protecting Black Americans against the ramifications of the pandemic and provide some policy solutions to fix the problem.

Read in Newsweek

Health care during the crisis

Estimating potential spending on COVID-19 care. Shifts in health care delivery caused by the pandemic have major financial implications for providers, payers, and patients. In a new analysis, Matthew Fiedler and Zirui Song project how much will be spent on direct COVID-19 care in the United States.

Removing regulatory barriers to telehealth. The COVID-19 outbreak has generated an immediate need for telehealth services to prevent further infections in the delivery of health care. But until recently, telehealth adoption has been limited by ambiguous and often changing regulations. New research from Nicol Turner Lee, Jack Karsten, and Jordan Roberts offers a path forward.

For more on telehealth, watch this past week's webinar featuring opening remarks by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai.

A note on the Brookings response to COVID-19:

The Brookings Institution campus in Washington, D.C. will be closed through at least June 1. For more information, read our full guidance here. As Brookings experts continue to assess the global impacts of COVID-19, read the latest analysis and policy recommendations at our coronavirus page or stay up to date with our coronavirus newsletter.

The conclusions and recommendations of any Brookings publication are solely those of its author(s), and do not reflect the views of the Institution, its management, or its other scholars.

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