One year after the COVID-19 pandemic began, it’s clear that many households and communities have been impacted in ways they never expected. The virus has revealed and worsened some preexisting economic fragilities, disrupted food systems, and exacerbated socioeconomic inequalities. And with schools closed and work and economic activity curbed, millions of people have lost incomes, increasing their vulnerability to poverty and other social problems.
Our maps show the time-varying reproductive number, Rt, a leading indicator of increases or decreases in cases, hospitalizations and deaths (see explanation below). Rt estimates have wide uncertainty ranges, reflecting that transmission occurs before a case is confirmed, a person is hospitalized, or dies. Rt values above 1 indicate that infections are growing.
While the pandemic has impacted all communities and social groups, research suggests that poor people have been disproportionally affected – whether because of higher infection rates or decreased access to food, employment or services during the pandemic and its aftermath (Karaye and Horney 2020; Duarte et al. 2021). Additionally, studies have found that certain regions and cities are particularly vulnerable due to their high concentrations of low-income residents or segregation by racial or ethnic group (Mari-Dell’Olmo et al. 2020; Kassler and Talarico 2021).
Americans have mixed feelings about how their local, state, and national officials have handled the pandemic. A slim majority say local hospitals did an excellent or good job responding to the outbreak. But in general, fewer than half of adults give positive ratings to their elected officials and only Joe Biden gets high marks.