The Coronavirus Outbreak

As my colleague Katherine J. Wu reported late last week, coronavirus cases are starting to level off or fall in big East Coast cities such as New York and Washington, D.C. Recent models predict that this surge will peak nationally sometime this month, Katie writes—though she cautions that we don’t know how slow the descent might be. Still, this is encouraging news, and especially welcome as more and more people consider throwing in the towel. One group of Americans—essential workers—have no such luxury.

• Omicron is making bad jobs worse. “We’re essentially asking this least well compensated and most precariously employed workforce to take on the everyday management of a polarized and angry and dangerous public,” Harvard sociologist Daniel Schneider told my colleague Amanda Mull.

• Many workers lack the sick leave required to isolate after testing positive. “Realistically, many Americans were never able to take a full 10, or even five, days off to recover from the coronavirus,” Olga Khazan reports.

Further reading: Out of shame, some people are hiding that their unvaccinated loved ones died of COVID, Andrea Stanley writes.