NCoC’s Pandemic to Prosperity team has been hard at work focusing on the South as the region to lead the way in pandemic recovery. Today, we’re excited to release our latest edition of Pandemic to Prosperity, a timely and comprehensive overview of the Covid-related impacts on Americans’ lives and livelihoods, governments, civic institutions, and overall well-being. 

State and local governments prioritizing projects for the American Rescue Plan and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act can use these findings to target structural disparities that ultimately undermine community resilience. Some key findings in the report can be found below.

The effects of the pandemic have been deep and long — with no end in sight. Scientists are concerned that the continued emergence of new variants could mean multiple outbreaks per year — outbreaks that are just as disruptive as the Omicron variant has been.  As the nation considers how to survive and thrive in this “new normal,” strategic investments in health care, child care, workforce upskilling, and resilient infrastructure will be critical for smoothing out the bumps in the road ahead.

KEY FINDINGS:

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MENTAL HEALTH

  • Anxiety and depression levels have nearly tripled from 11% in 2019 to 31% in December 2021 but people aren’t able to find the care they need. Mental health providers are in short supply, particularly in Southern and Midwestern states. Most states have few plans for expanding the supply of mental health providers.
  • Some communities are adopting innovative approaches, such as mobile crisis response services, funded by American Rescue Plan and Medicaid dollars, for acute mental health crises. This will allow them to reduce reliance on law enforcement who are often called to intervene during mental health crises but are rarely well-equipped to respond to these challenges.

CHILDREN’S WELL-BEING

  • Many rural hospitals in these states have closed and, in 2021, 60% of rural counties had no pediatricians, forcing rural residents to travel long distances to get care or simply go without.
  • Child poverty fell to 12% in November, down from 20% one year earlier, thanks to monthly child tax credit payments. But an estimated 4 million eligible low-income children did not receive the benefit (nor their stimulus payments). State and local outreach efforts must be ramped up, and organizations that provide no-cost tax filing services will need additional capacity to ensure they can assist more eligible families in accessing this benefit.
  • 3 in 10 adults experienced a child care disruption in the 4 weeks ending December 13, 2021.
  • Nearly two-thirds of child care centers and other home care providers experienced recent staff shortages, compared to 36% pre-pandemic. Those who remain are further burdened with the pressures of being overworked, understaffed, and underpaid. With American Rescue Plan dollars available to shore up the sector, the challenge will be how to leverage these one-time investments to expand financial supports and stabilize the workforce.

INFORMATION ACCESS

  • More than 1 in 10 households lacked internet access in 2020, with over 18% of residents in AK, MS, NM, and WV lacking broadband — essential for staying connected in our increasingly digital society. The $14.2 billion federal Affordable Connectivity Program, which launched in early 2022 as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, will provide subsidies to low-income households for internet service and devices. The Infrastructure bill also includes $42.5 billion to bring high-speed internet to areas (primarily rural) that currently lack it.
  • Half of all U.S. counties are “news deserts,” meaning they lack the local news Americans count on for local Covid and community updates. With rapidly-changing Covid information and guidance, ranging from safe return to in-person school protocols, to community testing, local news sources are an essential platform for both transparency and community input.
  • More than 70 new local newsrooms have launched since 2020, many supported by philanthropic dollars. Most notable is a rise in local news publications by and for Black, Latino, LGBTQIA+, and other historically underserved communities.

DATA QUALITY

  • The Census Bureau’s American Community Survey saw a dramatic decline in response, particularly among low-income households.
  • Meanwhile half of all states fail to report Covid-19 metrics key to combatting the pandemic, including hospitalizations by age and death rates by vaccination status.
  • Bolstering state and federal data infrastructure will be essential for correctly informing trillions of dollars of future public and private investments. 

HOSPITAL CAPACITY AND STAFF SHORTAGES

  • Hospitals already stretched thin from the ongoing pandemic face new hurdles with the Omicron variant, as intensive care units across 19 states and D.C. were at 85% capacity or more as of January 14, 2022.
  • Even with newly shortened CDC isolation and quarantine guidelines, roughly 1,200 hospitals across the nation reported critical staffing shortages as of January 10. Another 120 anticipate shortages in the following week.

Several states have enacted statewide measures that require health care workers to focus on patients in critical need, putting workers in the difficult position of determining who receives care and who does not.