COVID-19 news: KC divided over wearing masks; college grads face tough job market
Beginning this week, even more businesses around the Kansas City area are setting to reopen, part of the dual goals of restarting a devastated economy — some 33 million people nationwide have filed for unemployment since the coronavirus outbreak — while also protecting public health.
Whether, or how fast, COVID-19 cases resurge will have much to do with how dutiful the public is about social distancing and other precautions.
That includes wearing or not wearing face masks, acts that in recent weeks have become ever more politicized.
After initial statements that masks were not necessary, or protective against the new coronavirus, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed course in April, recommending that all people wear masks in public to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. President Donald Trump, however, has yet to do so.
It’s clear the issue splits across party lines, at least to some degree, with 76% of Democrats compared to 59% of Republicans saying they are more likely than not to wear a mask when leaving home, according to recent poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs.
College seniors face tough job market
Missouri and Kansas college seniors are entering a job market where an estimated 30 million people have filed for unemployment benefits in the last six weeks. Some grads and near-grads are migrating back home to regroup. Others are reshaping plans and dreams they’ve nurtured for years with hard work and student loans.
As freshmen, they saw a robust economy waiting for them, where jobs and opportunities seemed plentiful. But in what feels like the blink of an eye, the class of 2020 watched that future swept away by the coronavirus pandemic.
It’s not the spring 2020 they envisioned.
Economists said graduating seniors should prepare themselves for a rough entry into the real world.
“I think in the next couple of months, it’s going to be very dire for people who are just getting into the job market,” said Margaret Simms, a nonresident fellow at the Urban Institute.
“It’s stressful and it’s kind of disappointing,” said Kristin Thompson, a graduate student in social work at Washington University in St. Louis.
A Mother’s Day story
The Star’s Shelly Yang wrote a first-person account of traveling to China to retrieve her daughter:
Last October, my husband and I sent Annie to stay with her grandparents in China for what we thought would be several weeks. We wanted her to experience the culture and get to know her extended family. I planned to bring her back home after the Chinese New Year in late January.
But days before my departure, the coronavirus struck China, and the city of Wuhan (my husband’s hometown) was on lockdown. I worried if I went, I would miss being a part of The Star’s Super Bowl coverage. Worse, I did not want to expose Annie and myself to the high risk of infection during international travel.
I canceled my trip, hoping there would be a better time to travel if I would patiently wait a few months.
But things kept getting worse. My husband scored a ticket for a March 27 flight to Beijing for me. But as the day drew near, my family was debating if I should come as the pandemic swept across the United States. In the meantime, countries were closing their borders, and airlines were suspending international flights.
“It will only get harder,” I said. “I have to go now.”
