Janine Jackson interviewed EPI’s Josh Bivens about coronavirus and the economy for the March 6, 2020, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.
Janine Jackson: After some breathless and some racist coverage on coronavirus and the respiratory illness COVID-19, US media did get around to acknowledging that, for example, many people can’t follow the critical recommendation to stay home from work if they’re ill. As many as a quarter of US workers don’t have any paid sick days.
Consideration of the various factors affecting the potential spread of coronavirus and our societal response is not “politicizing” the issue; public health is inherently political, it’s just a matter of how thoughtful and transparent we are.