Consider This from NPR - COVID-19 Relief And Cash Payments Near; CDC Says Vaccinated Can Gather Without Masks

Episode Date: March 8, 2021

Over the weekend, the Senate approved a version of President Biden's $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, setting up a vote in the House that could send the package to Biden's desk as early as Tuesday. The package contains direct cash payments for many Americans, extended unemployment benefits, billions of dollars for vaccine distribution and a significant change to the child tax credit that could lift millions of American children out of poverty. Indi Dutta-Gupta of the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality explains how the credit would work. And there's new guidance for Americans who've been fully vaccinated. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say vaccinated people can feel safe enjoying a few pre-pandemic freedoms. NPR's Allison Aubrey has details. Here's more information on the new CDC recommendations. In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Support for NPR and the following message come from Carnegie Corporation of New York, working to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for education, democracy, and peace. More information at carnegie.org. The deadline set by Democrats to pass a massive COVID relief package worth almost $2 trillion is March 14th. That's Sunday. As of right now, they're on track. The yeas are 50. The days are 49. The bill as amended is passed. The Senate approved the package, officially called the American Rescue Plan over the weekend, without a single Republican vote. Senator Angus King of Maine was one of the yeas.

Everybody wanted to get this thing done by March 14th, which is when the current boost to unemployment ends. Now the bill heads back to the House, where an earlier version also passed without a single Republican vote. Angus King, an independent, told NPR he didn't understand why. The major pieces of the bill, payments to individuals, extended unemployment, money for states and localities, money for schools, all of those things were in the COVID package that passed last year that all the Republicans voted for.

This time around, Republicans say the bill is too big. With or without their support, it could be ready for President Biden's signature as early as Tuesday, meaning cash payments could hit bank accounts in the next few weeks. Here's White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. I will tell you that our focus right now is on getting this bill across the finish line, getting relief out to the American people, which we expect will happen by the end of the month in terms of getting the relief out. Consider this, the largest standalone economic stimulus in American history is almost a reality. We'll explain more about what's in it, including a provision that could dramatically reduce child poverty in America.

And we'll talk about new guidance from the CDC about when it's okay to lose the mask if you've been vaccinated. From NPR, I'm Adi Cornish. It's Monday, March 8th. This message comes from NPR sponsor 3M, who is using science and innovation to help the world respond to COVID-19. 3M plants are running around the clock, producing more than 95 million respirators per month in the U.S. In addition, 3M has also maximized production of other solutions, including biopharma filtration, hand sanitizers, and disinfectants. Learn more at 3M.com slash COVID. 3M science applied to life. We are still in the middle of this pandemic. And right now, having science news you can trust from variants to vaccines is essential. NPR Shortwave has your back. About 10 minutes every weekday, listen and subscribe to Shortwave, the daily science podcast from NPR.

It's Consider This from NPR. The relief package is close, but it's not on President Biden's desk, not yet. You know, obviously, it's always difficult when a bill changes and we have to take another look at it. Congressman Dan Kildee, a Michigan Democrat, is the chief deputy whip in the House, and it's his job to help build support for the bill in that chamber. Early on, Democrats worried that it could be difficult if the Senate version didn't contain something a lot of progressive lawmakers would want, an increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. But in the end, the Senate stripped that increase out of the package because the Senate parliamentarian ruled it couldn't be included

under the budget reconciliation process Democrats are using. The minimum wage piece, I think, was the most difficult for us to accept. This has been a priority for Democrats for a very long time. This was an opportunity to move forward on something that's long overdue. But I think at the end of the day, we do have to take a look at the crisis we're in, both a health and an economic crisis. Basically, Kildee signaled to NPR, Democrats will take the win on the overall package, which contains a lot of what they wanted. $1,400 checks for hundreds of millions of Americans, extended unemployment insurance, tens of billions of dollars in aid for renters and homeowners, and billions of dollars for vaccine distribution. On the $15 an hour minimum wage, Democrats are resigned.

They'll live to fight another day. What I'm hearing from my colleagues is some disappointment, but a pretty strong resolve that we're going to support the legislation. Congressman Dan Kildee, he spoke to NPR's Lulu Garcia Navarro. Even without the increase in the federal minimum wage, the COVID relief package contains another new provision that progressives are thrilled about. It's a significant change to the child tax credit that essentially creates guaranteed income for families with children. That's something that already exists in many other rich countries around the world. Most parents would get a monthly check of up to $300 per child. And the benefit only lasts a year, but Democrats hope to make it permanent, which analysts say could lift millions of American children out of poverty.

Look, we're talking about 66 million kids getting more money. We're talking about several million kids who now live in poverty being kept out of poverty. That's Indy Dutta Gupta of the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality, who spoke to NPR's Ari Shapiro about how the plan will work. The really big anti-poverty component here is that we would, for the first time, allow workers with the lowest earnings, those who have lost their job and have struggled in this tough, tough labor market to have even modest earnings, we would allow them to get the maximum credit for their kids. That would just be life-changing for many of these children and their families.

Explain who qualifies. What's the cutoff? Well, basically what the policies would do is they would allow the vast majority of families to access the child tax credit. This is reasonably well targeted in that the increases now are going to go to families with the lowest incomes, but it does really spread out benefits throughout the income spectrum. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy has just estimated that the bottom 60% of Americans by income would receive an increase in their incomes of 11% on average. And then the bottom 20% would receive an increase of 33% on average. So we are living through one of the largest boosts to family incomes, I think, that may have ever happened, at least at this

pace, in U.S. history. And this is an idea that's been around for decades. So why do you think this is the moment it's finally happening? Yeah, this idea has been around for decades. Plenty of our peer countries, wealthy countries in Europe, even Canada and elsewhere, have had a child allowance or child benefit. I think there's growing appreciation for the fact that when people don't have earnings from work, it's not necessarily their fault. Right now, we are arguably 12 million jobs short of where we would have been had the pandemic not hit.

We have not seen a labor market this week in generations. Is there an argument that this could have been more targeted? I mean, if these tax credits are going to families that make six figures, is it as effective as it could be if it were a little more narrowly tailored? Well, I don't think that the tax credit is less effective if it's not as narrowly tailored. But of course, there's a question if that money going to higher income households could be better spent elsewhere. That's an open debate and conversation to have. But remember, one of the reasons why I think these policies do have some widespread support is they're fairly easy to administer, in this case through the IRS, and they reach a large share of households. So a lot of people are going to benefit here and that could help it politically.

Indy Dutta Gupta of the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality. Another thing the American Rescue Plan does is allocate billions more dollars for free-of-charge vaccine distribution. The same day the Senate passed it, Saturday, the U.S. set a new record for vaccines given in a single day, 2.9 million doses. Now there's new guidance for what people can do once they've had their full course. According to the CDC, fully vaccinated people should feel safe gathering indoors with others without masks.

We've been through a lot this past year and with more and more people getting vaccinated each day we are starting to turn a corner. CDC director Rochelle Walensky announced the long-awaited guidance which spelled out a bunch of different recommendations for fully vaccinated people to follow based on who they might be around. The recommendations issued today are just a first step. As more people get vaccinated and the science and evidence expands, we will continue to update this guidance. Health correspondent Alison Aubrey has more on the new CDC guidance.

She spoke to Ari Shapiro. What is the CDC saying fully vaccinated people can do? Well, the agency is basically saying that fully vaccinated people can gather indoors with other fully vaccinated people without wearing a mask or without social distancing. They can also gather unmasked with people from another household who are not vaccinated and at low risk of serious illness. So that's a green light for, say, grandparents who want to gather with grandchildren or children. Vaccinated grandparents, unvaccinated children or grandchildren, you're saying? That's right. But the agency says fully vaccinated people should continue to mask when they are in public,

avoid crowds, and take other precautions around people who are at high risk of serious illness from the virus and aren't yet vaccinated. So this guidance applies to a growing number of people every day. How many are we talking about? Well, I mean, the pace of vaccinations has really picked up. Nearly 60 million adults have received at least one dose, but only about 12 percent of adults have been fully vaccinated. So the CDC says this new guidance is kind of a first step to returning to everyday activities. Officials say there's a growing body of evidence to show that fully vaccinated people are much less likely to become infected and also potentially less likely to spread the virus to others. They use that word potential because it's not completely

nailed down. The risk appears to be quite low. And as the science evolves, there will be more updated guidance. Okay, but in the meantime, this is not a free-for-all. You said even fully vaccinated people should continue to take some precautions. What should they do? That's right. I mean, the new guidance is really specific to what people can do in their own homes and private settings, but the agency warns that everyone, even those who are vaccinated, should continue to follow recommended guidelines when they're out in public, and this includes masking, social distancing. I know some people don't want to hear this. They ask, well, why get the shot if I still need to take these precautions? The reason, Ari, is that 75% of adults don't yet have the vaccine. So a lot of people are still vulnerable to the virus. Also, there's still about 60,000 new cases a day. And there's still some

uncertainty, as I just mentioned, as to whether vaccinated people could spread it. And what about travel? I know lots of people are really eager to take the vacations that they've postponed for a year. This may come as a disappointment, but even for fully vaccinated people, the CDC continues to recommend that people delay travel. Here's CDC Director Rochelle Walensky at the White House briefing today. We would like to give the opportunity for vaccinated grandparents to visit their children and grandchildren who are healthy and who are local. But our travel guidance currently has been unchanged. So what we hear her saying is local visits OK, not so much if it requires travel. She says the agency is still waiting on data as to whether vaccinated people can transmit

the virus before they decide whether to change the travel guidance. NPR health correspondent, Alison Aubrey. And there's more info on those new CDC guidelines at the link in our episode notes. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Adi Cornish. Support for NPR and the'm Adi Cornish.