DEVELOPED BY:
Melvin H. Wilson, MBA, LCSW
NASW Senior Policy Consultant
National Association of Social Workers
In Collaboration with:
Opportunity Starts at Home
The COVID-19 pandemic is a public health crisis unseen in the world since 1918. While the human toll of the 1918 flu pandemic was greater than that seen today—it claimed around 50 million lives worldwide including about 675,000 Americans—the economic impact of the Spanish Flu was far less devastating in 1918 than that seen in 2020-2021 from COVID-19. Now that the coronavirus is in its second wave and its impacts can be seen in nearly every state at truly alarming levels, any notion of averting an economic disaster is remote. More to the point, by the time the COVID-19 pandemic ends, the virus would have caused immeasurable economic damage in the United States and worldwide. Unfortunately, as seen in many disasters, communities of color are disproportionately impacted by the economic devastation caused by the pandemic.
To read the NASW Social Justice Brief in full, click here.