Biden decries women’s job losses, closed schools
President calls crises a ‘national emergency’
President Joe Biden expressed concern about millions of women losing their jobs and the shuttering of schools, calling both part of a “national emergency” amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“It is a national emergency. It genuinely is a national emergency,” Biden said in an interview with “CBS Evening News.”
Both crises stem from the pandemic, which has disproportionately affected service jobs that women are more likely to occupy than men. The pandemic has effectively erased, and in some cases reversed, decades of economic progress made by women in the workforce.
In September alone, about 865,000 women dropped out of the workforce, compared with 216,000 men, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Overall, almost 3 million women have dropped out of the labor force since the pandemic began, including 275,000 in January, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Women also are more often the primary caregivers of children and elderly relatives, meaning the burden of care during the pandemic has fallen especially hard on women in the household.
The president also expressed alarm about school closures, which have disrupted families across the country and put millions of children at risk of falling behind in their educations. A year later, some students are still without internet access.
“I think it’s time for schools to reopen safely. Safely. You have to have fewer people in the classroom, you have to have ventilation systems that have been reworked,” Biden said.
In Chicago, teachers unions have been pushing for widespread vaccination of teachers before resuming in-person classes. In California, unions are making similar vaccination calls and urging that ventilation systems in schools be upgraded to better handle any potential viral spread.
Biden promised to reopen schools within his first 100 days in office. Calls to bring students back to the classroom have increased with the start of a new semester, but the vaccine rollout and other mitigation measures are lagging behind what experts say is necessary to return safely.
“Our CDC commissioner is going to be coming out with science-based judgment, within I think as early as Wednesday, as to lay out what the minimum requirements are,” the president said.
“I think about the price,” Biden said, referring to the developmental and mental health costs many children are experiencing.
“So many of my grandkids and your kids are going to pay for not having had the chance to finish whatever it was. That graduation, where you didn’t get to walk across the stage – I think they’re going through a lot, these kids,” Biden said.
Biden expressed interest in using every metric available to combat the pandemic, including following up with the National Football League about its offer to use stadiums as vaccination sites. In 2020, the National Basketball Association similarly used many arenas as testing sites for the virus.
“Absolutely we will,” Biden said of the NFL’s offer. “And, I mean, let me put it this way – I tell my team they’re available and I believe we’ll use them. Look, it was one thing if we had enough vaccine, which we didn’t. So we’re pushing as hard as we can to get more vaccine manufactured.”
Biden said the Trump administration’s handling of the pandemic was “even more dire than we thought,” a fact the Biden team realized only after assuming office.
On Friday, the White House announced it would invoke the Defense Production Act to spur the manufacturing of more vaccines and coronavirus testing. The Pentagon also announced it would deploy 1,000 active-duty military personnel to help with vaccine rollout.
“The idea that this can be done and we can get to herd immunity much before the end of this summer is very difficult,” Biden conceded, discussing the prospect of getting vaccines to a critical mass of Americans quickly.
Epidemiologists have said at least 75% of the population will need to be vaccinated before viral spread will be meaningfully limited by herd immunity and large parts of pre-pandemic life can resume.
“I think it’s time for schools
to reopen safely. Safely. You
have to have fewer people in
the classroom, you have to
have ventilation systems
that have been reworked.”
President Joe Biden