Coronavirus will affect everyone in Wisconsin
Even if you don’t get sick, economic effect is harsh
Since coronavirus shut down schools and forced people to stay home, it’s become increasingly clear the respiratory disease is both a public health and economic crisis.
As Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett put it: “This is the most serious challenge the world has faced since World War II.”
Although younger people may have a lesser chance of having serious symptoms, no one is immune to the changes in daily life that coronavirus has brought with it.
Those changes — while critical to stopping the spread of the virus and saving lives — have very real consequences and challenges for everyone’s friends, neighbors, co-workers and relatives in Wisconsin and beyond.
Schools are closed. Bars and taverns have been shut down while restaurants have cut staff because they can only offer carryout and delivery. Entertainment venues are shuttered. Small business owners are left wondering if they will survive. More than 45,000
Wisconsinites filed unemployment claims this week alone.
“There are people who are losing their livelihood who are going to be facing big trouble very, very shortly,” said Rob Henken, president of the Wisconsin Policy Forum. “It’s hard to think about what’s going to be the impact six months from now.”
Seasonal flu outbreaks already are associated with people going deeper into debt.
A 2015 study of influenza and credit card and mortgage defaults in 83 metro areas found the largest effects were for 90-day defaults, suggesting a flu outbreak has a “disproportionate impact on vulnerable borrowers who are already behind on their payments.”
“And that’s just a regular flu, not a pandemic where you actually are having people sent home before they’re sick,” said J. Michael Collins, one of the study’s authors and professor and director of the Center for Financial Security at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“The longer this goes, the more likely it makes things like foreclosures and bankruptcies,” he said. “Because people won’t have income and the bills will just keep coming,” he said.
Actions taken now, or inaction, will reverberate in the weeks, months and years to come, said Robert S. Smith, a history professor and director of the Center for Urban Research at Marquette University.
“We have to assume that there will be long-term consequences,” he said. “We have to begin to think about some of the roadblocks and deviations we can take now to keep that ugliness of that future as minimal as possible.”
The reality for many is a struggle to meet basic needs, from a loss of jobs, education, child care and food.
Children out of school
Situation: More than 1 million children in Wisconsin are out of school indefinitely as part of a statewide shutdown.
Fallout: Although some schools are providing take-home packets and offering online classes, experts expect a loss of educational attainment.
For children who get free or reducedcost lunches, there’s a question of where they will get food. Schools across the state, including Milwaukee Public Schools, are offering food pick-ups for families and the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee is offering the same.
Then, there’s the challenge of keeping kids in a supervised, safe setting when their parents have to keep working and after-school centers, recreation facilities like the YMCA, libraries and museums are closed.
Meanwhile, those workers at some of the service-providers and nonprofits that are now closed are not being paid during the shutdown, affecting their own ability to make rent and pay other bills.
People who can’t work from home
Situation: Employers have switched to remote work, but that’s not an option for all.
Many occupations require a worker to show up in person: doctors, nurses and other medical staff; paramedics, police and other first-responders; retail workers at grocery stories and pharmacies; custodial workers needed to keep hospitals, businesses and other facilities free of germs; and many more.
Some of those jobs are low-wage or hourly positions with forced overtime and few benefits.
Fallout: Those who cannot work from home are at higher risk of contracting coronavirus and passing it along.
Parents also face the daunting question of who will watch their children while they have to work. Grandparents are at a higher risk for the virus and, as such, probably should not be babysitting. Child care centers remain open but as of Thursday must scale down to 10 or fewer teachers and 50 or fewer children. State officials have said child care centers should prioritize serving the kids of first-responders, health workers and others on the frontlines of the outbreak.
People who cannot work, period
Situation: Bars, restaurants, hotels, resorts and casinos are shutting down or laying off employees as they adhere to new rules about mass gatherings and move to provide or expand delivery and carryout. Caterers and venues are seeing wedding and conference cancellations. Malls have closed. Not all retailers are paying their employees during the shutdown.
Fallout: People are losing jobs and much-needed income. Some businesses, like Potowatomi Hotel & Casino and Fiserv Forum, are paying their workers during the closure period, but many others are not or say they cannot afford to.
Not all hourly workers qualify for unemployment. People must have worked steadily for the same employer for nine months. Even if they do, the maximum weekly benefit is $370. Ride-share drivers, freelancers, artists and more often are classified as independent contractors and are not eligible for unemployment benefits.
Homeless individuals
Situation: Public health officials have stressed everyone should stay at home as much as possible and frequently wash their hands to prevent the spread of coronavirus, but what if you don’t have a home or ready access to soap and water? That’s the reality for thousands of people experiencing homelessness on any given day in Wisconsin.
Fallout: People need safe, clean places to stay during the pandemic, and they need personal hygiene materials to prevent them from getting and then spreading the virus. COVID-19 is particularly dangerous for the elderly and people with underlying health conditions — two segments overrepresented in the local homeless population.
People without medical insurance
Situation: Nearly all health insurers plan to waive deductibles for tests for the coronavirus when deemed medically necessary. But an estimated 7% of Wisconsin residents — about 402,000 people — were without health insurance for part or all of 2018, according to a report released last fall.
Fallout: People will avoid getting testing — assuming they meet the criteria for a test and one is available — because they are fearful of a large bill. That not only puts them at risk for spreading the virus unknowingly, it also makes it harder for public health officials to have accurate information about the pandemic.
Families without broadband internet at home
Situation: Some schools and educational publishers are offering online courses, enrichment and tools, but not every family has high-speed broadband needed to run some of those programs. As of June 2017, the Federal Communications Commission estimated at least 241,100 Wisconsinites lacked access to broadband, mostly in rural areas.
Fallout: Children fall even further behind than their peers without access to online materials. In addition, parents who need to pay bills, file for unemployment or take care of other online tasks may only have a smartphone to use to get online — if they even have that. Public libraries that provide free computers and internet access are now closed.
College students
Situation: College students across the state are finishing their classes online for this semester.
Fallout: Students have had to find new living arrangements after on-campus housing closed. They likely will lose out on internships and hands-on learning. Graduating seniors will be thrust into a difficult job market where even companies still operating likely will have slow hiring processes. They also will have fewer options in the service industry, which many turn to between jobs.
Student retention, particularly for first-generation students, already was a concern. A loss of structure, in-person learning and stability could lead to more dropouts, affecting those students’ earning potential in the short and long term.
Relief at the federal, state and local levels
Federal, state and local officials have taken a range of actions — and are proposing more — to provide relief. Still, the need for help is urgent. “I think what has happened is the responsibility to deal with this has been squarely placed on each and every American citizen,” said Smith, of Marquette. “And then it becomes the question of who does the government serve? Who is the government is intended to serve?”
Federal lawmakers already have approved measures to address sick time and more, and a third, much larger stimulus package remained pending Friday.
The U.S. Department Housing and Urban Development is temporarily suspending foreclosures and evictions, while the Federal Housing Finance Agency is doing the same for singlefamily homeowner mortgages backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.
In Milwaukee and Dane counties, judges have ordered all evictions to be halted.
State and federal lawmakers have made $20,000 loans available for small businesses. The Wisconsin Legislature also is considering waiving the oneweek waiting period to receive unemployment benefits.
Those who are struggling should ask for assistance — from their family, friends and service-providers — and call creditors and bill collectors to see what options are available, said Collins, who studies consumer habits.
“Just don’t cocoon to the point where you’re not asking for help,” he said.
Those who do have the ability to help others should look for those opportunities, from checking on a neighbor to ordering takeout from a local restaurant, Smith said.
“This requires us to live with some civic-minded purpose. Small victories in this time are going to be very, very important, too,” he said.
“We need them.”