Cynthia Maclin cannot get out of bed most days. Chronic lung disease leaves her short of breath and ended her 45-year career as a medical administrator. COVID-19 cases are on the rise in her hometown of Chicago, and Maclin has already lost eight friends and family members to the virus, including the father of her two daughters. For the first time, this month, she’s also unable to pay rent. …
Maclin is just one among many in the U.S. facing a cascade of economic and health-related problems revealed in a new survey by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The poll finds nearly half the households in America — 46% — report facing serious financial pain during the pandemic. It is a problem that is more acute in the four largest U.S. cities, and among Latino and Black households. Hundreds of billions in government stimulus and other support did not make an apparent dent in their struggles. CONT.
Yuki Noguchi, NPR News
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