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Indirect health consequences of the Covid-19 crisis

“I was very depressed, I screamed, I cried, I was alone. And I didn’t want to be alone, I wanted somebody to be beside me ... and there just isn’t anybody.”
— White Ohioan in her late 80s interviewed by the American Voices Project

The American Voices Project is a nationwide study of how people are doing during these difficult times. It’s a first-of-its-kind study that relies on in-depth immersive interviews delivered to representative samples across the United States. We’ve talked to people about their health, emotional well-being, relationships, jobs, politics, and much more. The latest American Voices Project report examines the health consequences of the pandemic.

Key findings:
  • The physical and mental health strains of the crisis have disrupted nearly everyone’s lives in often unanticipated ways.
     
  • Most respondents expressed frustration with the lackadaisical precautions being taken by others; very few expressed skepticism about masks and related measures.
     
  • The pandemic exacerbates existing difficulties regarding healthcare access.
     
  • The financial stress and social isolation of the pandemic provoked psychological distress for many participants, and was especially hard for those with prior mental health challenges.
     
  • In the face of mental health challenges, respondents have shown tremendous resilience, drawing on collective and individual coping strategies to ward off negative mental health consequences. But the coping strategies they described may not be sustainable over the long haul and in the face of structural failures.

READ THE REPORT

The “Monitoring the Crisis” series is cosponsored by the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. The American Voices Project gratefully acknowledges support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation; the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; the Center for Research on Child Wellbeing at Princeton University; the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative; the David and Lucile Packard Foundation; the Federal Reserve Banks of Atlanta, Boston, Cleveland, Dallas, New York, Philadelphia, Richmond, and San Francisco; the Ford Foundation; The James Irvine Foundation; the JPB Foundation; the National Science Foundation; the Pritzker Family Foundation; and the Russell Sage Foundation. The Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality is a program of the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences.

The views expressed here are the authors’ and not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Federal Reserve System, Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, or the organizations that supported this research. Any remaining errors are the authors’ responsibility.


Copyright © 2021 stanfordcpi, All rights reserved.


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