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Covid-19’s winners and losers

Bloomberg Equality
Bloomberg

Pressing "resume" on state and local economies that were paused to slow Covid-19 will certainly create winners and losers. It's possible some will end up being both.

Florida will lift some restrictions on May 4, allowing restaurants and stores outside of its three most populous counties to operate at 25% capacity. Considering the soaring rate of unemployment claims, hourly workers like waiters and store clerks may be eager to get back to earning, but they and their families will be more exposed to the pathogen, almost certainly fueling a resurgence of infections and deaths. Salaried white-collar workers who can stay home will remain relatively safe. More of America's working-class, in other words, will be placed at greater personal risk.

Brazil is going further. Some areas are allowing malls, gyms and churches to reopen. That's what many people there seem to want, as support for isolation policies is fading despite a rising daily death toll. The nation is a winner in the race to reopen, but it's likely a loser in the war against the coronavirus. —Philip Gray

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President Donald Trump ordered U.S. meat plants to remain open despite thousands of workers who are sick or in isolation. Whether the companies listen to him is another matter.

Los Angeles is the first major U.S. city to offer Covid-19 tests to all residents, even those without symptoms or risk factors. Broad testing, especially in minority communities, is seen as a key to reopening economies.

Americans whose spouses lack a Social Security number—mostly immigrants without legal status—won't receive bailout checks. The Trump administration is being sued over the policy, its latest attempt to fit its immigration agenda into the pandemic.

Going back to work may mean forgoing unemployment benefits while putting your health at risk. Some Americans may choose to remain unemployed.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic challenger to Trump, formally began his search for a vice presidential candidate. Contenders include Senators Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren.

Citigroup finds top women who leave the bank have different motives than departing men.

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Isolation works: When nations keep people home, infections and death rates fall.

How the Covid-19 crash is like the Black Death

Inequality soared after the Great Recession of 2008, when the rich got a whole lot richer. But the Covid-19 crash is a different beast. Bloomberg Businessweek asks: Will this recovery look more like Europe's after the Black Death? In that case, the poor got less poor and the rich got less rich. What's certain though is that before any recovery, while the world is in the grip of the downturn, the poor will suffer the most.

 

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