Figure 4 – Source: COVID-19 Tracking Project. BBC.
After a vaccine was approved in November 2020, mass vaccination campaigns
were initiated in December and into the following years in an attempt to achieve
widespread immunity and to put an end to the impact of the virus on global public
health.
Although COVID-19 became the 3rd leading cause of death in the United
States in August 2020, it also had an immeasurable impact on the lives of those who remained healthy throughout the pandemic. 102 Not only did the lockdowns have negative effects on the mental health of a huge majority of the population, but within weeks it had rendered over 10 million Americans jobless. 103 As stated
by Taylor (2021), ‘The speed and scale of job losses were without precedent:
Until March, the worst week for unemployment filings was 695,000 in 1982’. Due
to business closures and the lack of consumer spending, the U.S. was faced with
101
Made with FlippingBook HTML5