The Pandemic Won’t End Until We Strengthen Our Safety Net

The Dose

When a federal judge lifted the national mask mandate on airplanes, trains, and other public transportation, some Americans broke out the champagne. Others wrung their hands, dreading the removal of a relatively simple public health tool at a time when COVID-19 cases are rising across the U.S.

On the latest The Dose podcast, Celine Gounder, M.D., Senior Fellow and Editor-at-Large for Public Health at the Kaiser Family Foundation and Kaiser Health News, talks about why people without privilege — like those who are poor or uninsured and many people of color — will be hit the hardest if we rush to return to normal.

“Having safety nets becomes really important,” she says. Measures like improved indoor air quality, paid sick and family medical leave, and better access to health insurance would help control the health, social, and economic impacts of the pandemic.