Amazon Says Employees Quarantined By A Doctor Will Get Paid, But So Far Many Say They Haven’t

Amazon’s policies around who qualifies for quarantine pay have resulted in confusion and financial hardship for affected workers. The company maintains anyone quarantined will eventually be paid.

Caroline O'Donovan BuzzFeed News April 11, 2020

Carlos Jasso / Reuters

Under increasing public pressure over its response to the coronavirus pandemic, Amazon has repeatedly said that employees “placed into quarantine” will receive up to two weeks of pay. But internal company guidelines from late last month have no provision for paying employees whose doctor has quarantined them but who have not received an official diagnosis. And Amazon workers around the country on physician-ordered quarantine because of the pandemic say they have not been paid.

In response to questions from BuzzFeed News about its payment policies for employees under quarantine, Amazon officials late Thursday evening said those March 20 documents are old and that all employees placed into quarantine by a doctor will eventually receive two weeks of full pay.

Amazon, which employs hundreds of thousands of workers in its warehouses and has seen a surge in business during the pandemic because customers can’t go to traditional stores, also said that any failure to pay employees who are at home in physician-ordered quarantine was an error.

But seven employees around the country told BuzzFeed News they haven’t been paid and can’t get answers from Amazon’s human resources department about their cases. They also report widespread confusion about the company’s policies.

One employee at a warehouse in Florida, Donna, who asked to be identified only by her first name out of fear of retaliation, said she was told by a doctor to stay home and quarantine after she developed a cough, a headache, and chest pain. Donna reported her case to her human resources manager and provided the doctor’s note. But instead of paying her, she said, her human resources manager told her to contact the company’s Disability and Leave Services team. That team did not accept her original doctor’s note. Instead, they gave her more paperwork to be filled out by a doctor. But by the time that happened, Donna was no longer sick and unable to contact her doctor, who was busy during the pandemic.

“They just ignored the [doctor’s] note, dragged it on for weeks, [and] now I can’t find a [doctor] that will fill out [the] paperwork,” she said.

Even worse, being put on a leave of absence caused her to lose a promotion she was expecting and the raise that went along with it. As the sole breadwinner in her household, she said it has been financially devastating.

“My car will most likely get repo’ed since I couldn't pay it,” she said. “I managed to use every penny to pay rent. I'm so behind in bills now. ” This week, Donna began trying to sell her collection of vintage My Little Pony dolls to raise money.

Many employees say cases like Donna’s illustrate a disconnect between Amazon’s public messaging about its policies on paid leave and what is actually happening.

In a March 11 blog post, Amazon Senior Vice President of Human Resources Beth Galetti wrote, “Effective immediately, all Amazon employees diagnosed with COVID-19 or placed into quarantine will receive up to two-weeks of pay.”

But on March 20, Amazon sent instructions to its on-site human resources employees in at least two warehouses that muddied that promise, leaving some of them confused about the company’s compensation rules during the health crisis.

Those instructions, shared with BuzzFeed News by an HR employee who requested anonymity out of concern for retaliation, said that employees quarantined by the government or by Amazon will be paid for “up to 14 days Non-Working Paid Time.” But employees who are in “physician-directed quarantine or self-isolation,” by contrast, would only qualify for two weeks of paid time off “If COVID diagnosis or presumptive.”

The two HR employees said the written policy doesn’t say whether employees who stayed home with symptoms on a doctor’s orders but later tested negative for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, would get paid. It also fails to provide guidance on whether to pay someone who had symptoms but was never diagnosed either due to a shortage of tests or a doctor’s recommendation that they avoid medical facilities while contagious. Finally, it says that employees caring for a dependent or spouse who has tested positive may use vacation time but would not get paid leave.

Asked to comment on this story, an Amazon spokesperson said the March 20 documents may no longer be current and that “all Amazon employees diagnosed with COVID-19 or placed into quarantine by Amazon, a doctor or a government agency, receive two weeks of full pay.”

Jay Carney, Amazon’s senior vice president of global corporate affairs, told the New York Times on April 5 that, due to the shortage of COVID-19 tests in the United States, Amazon had ”made it clear that the additional paid time off applied to people who had suspected they had Covid.”

Still, the two HR employees who spoke with BuzzFeed News this week said they haven’t received an update regarding the policy.

Andre Matteson, who works at a warehouse near Portland, Oregon, was sent home by Amazon on March 22 with a cough and told to see a doctor before he came back. Matteson said Amazon told him he’d be paid for the time off as long as he provided a doctor’s note; he went home and called a doctor, who told him he could be having symptoms of COVID-19 and provided a note instructing him to quarantine for at least a week. His symptoms didn’t worsen and he was never tested; when he went back to work, he was told that to get paid he’d have to go home and apply for a leave of absence.

“I said, ‘You never told me that last week! You just said [to] provide you with the letter and I could return to work. I self-quarantined as you told me to do!’” Matteson said. “I still need to get paid.”

Matteson said Amazon probably owes him more than $500, but trying to get that money has so far entailed “jumping through one hoop after another.” He called Amazon’s promise to pay workers put in quarantine “really just a public relations thing.”

An Amazon HR staffer based in Missouri said there was confusion among staff about the discrepancy between the company’s public statements and the guidelines they were given on March 20.

"The original announcement ... did say if you’re quarantined or feel the need to quarantine you would get paid, but that was never adjusted internally,” that human resources employee said. “We’re answering a lot of questions [from] associates saying, ‘This is what the website says,’ and when we reached out to our management or leave teams, they were saying, ‘No, it’s not happening.’ People get really upset."

Do you have questions you want answered? You can always get in touch. And if you're someone who is seeing the impact of this firsthand, we’d also love to hear from you (you can reach out to us via one of our tip line channels).

The Families First Coronavirus Relief Act requires companies to provide two weeks of paid leave to employees quarantined by a doctor, but Amazon is exempted from that rule because it employs more than 500 people.

Many large companies whose services are in high demand during the pandemic have been adjusting their policies on the fly to adapt to changing conditions. Walmart said it will pay employees diagnosed with COVID-19 for up to two weeks but did not promise quarantine pay for those who don’t ultimately test positive for COVID-19. Lowe’s and Target have both promised 14 days paid to any employee who tests positive or is quarantined, though thousands of contract workers at Target aren’t being offered the same benefits. The grocery chain Kroger also said it would pay quarantined employees, as did BJ’s Wholesale Club, according to Business Insider. A UPS spokesperson said employees told to quarantine by a doctor due to coronavirus exposure will be eligible for paid time off; FedEx has said employees placed under “a medically required quarantine” will be paid, according to NBC News. A BuzzFeed News investigation published Friday found that many other large companies aren’t paying sick time at all during the pandemic.

According to the documents reviewed by BuzzFeed News, Amazon employees who are seeking pay while quarantined by a doctor are instructed to apply for compensation from Amazon’s Disability and Leave Services. DLS is an independent division of Amazon’s HR department that normally handles family leave for new parents and short-term disability cases. Amazon employees say the team, which was already stretched thin, has been overwhelmed by calls about the coronavirus.

“There weren’t enough of them to begin with before this happened,” said an Amazon employee at an Amazon warehouse in New Jersey. “I don't know that they were equipped to handle ... all the extra [cases].

That employee, who works in the HR department and requested anonymity to protect her employment, got sick three weeks ago and was instructed by a doctor to stay home while she waited for the results of a COVID-19 test. The test results were delayed for 10 days, but when she finally got them she was negative. Now she’s ready to return to work — but even though she herself works in HR, she isn’t sure whether she’ll be paid for the two weeks during which she stayed home without pay. “I’m having trouble getting into contact with the leave team,” she said. “They sent me one email and then no one responded.”

An Amazon warehouse associate in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, is also struggling to get a response from the company after being out on quarantine for three weeks. The employee, who requested anonymity, went to a doctor with symptoms three weeks ago. She provided Amazon HR with a note from her doctor instructing her to stay home. On March 25, her COVID-19 test results came back negative. But she hasn’t been back to work, because Amazon HR placed her on unpaid leave and she hasn’t yet been able to reach anyone in human resources to get permission to return to work.

“They were suppose[d] to call yesterday again and still haven’t,” she said on Thursday evening. In the meantime, she said, “I can’t pay my mortgage, my car loan, my car insurance, my other bills,” or afford food for “my two little girls.”

Experts say that people who don’t get paid sick time are more likely to come to work even if they feel sick or a doctor told them not to, which could contribute to the spread of the pandemic. For that reason, they recommend that workers told to stay home get paid.

“If that person isn't being paid, they have an incentive to break the quarantine and expose others to infection,” said Lawrence Gostin, director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for National and Global Health Law. “From a public health perspective, anyone in a medical quarantine should be paid because they are clearly unable to come to work due to potential infectiousness.

“When it comes to infectious diseases, it is important for companies to have liberal paid sick leave [policies] because you don't want to encourage a culture of presentee-ism in which sick workers come to the workplace, potentially spread the infection, and are not optimally productive because they are sick,” said Amesh Adalja with the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security.

The Missouri-based HR staffer said she’s particularly worried about at-risk workers in her facility. “It definitely concerns me as an HR person,” she said. “We have a lot of older population that works for us. If they’re trying to make ends meet ... of course they’re still going to come in. They’re going to do whatever they need to do to pay the bills.”

The New Jersey–based Amazon HR employee echoed that concern. “People need to be paid now or they’re going to keep coming to work and risk making other people sick,” she said.

A California-based driver who works for an Amazon contractor called Shipmates told BuzzFeed News that he also hasn’t been paid for the two weeks he stayed home after his doctor told him his symptoms were consistent with COVID-19. At the time, he assumed he could apply for pay to cover that leave from the $25 million Amazon Relief Fund the company announced on March 11, because a fact sheet he received about the program said that "the Fund will focus on qualifying individuals in the U.S. who have been quarantined for or diagnosed with COVID-19."

But now his application for pay has been denied, and Amazon’s website currently says that delivery drivers who ship packages for its third-party contractors, as well as independently contracted Flex drivers, would be eligible to apply for two weeks of paid leave from the Amazon Relief Fund “if diagnosed with COVID-19 or placed into quarantine by the government or Amazon.” As the driver was quarantined by a doctor and tested negative, he said, he fears he’s not eligible for the fund and can’t get answers.

Going on two weeks without pay, the driver said he’s had to negotiate with banks and insurance providers to extend due dates for student loan and car payments and isn’t sure how he’s going to pay his cellphone bill this month.

“Amazon made it seem like they would take care of me, and they’re not doing that,” he said.

There are currently at least 70 Amazon facilities where an employee has tested positive for COVID-19, according to research by the Athena coalition, a group of organizations focused on issues related to Amazon. News reports say one warehouse in Staten Island may have as many as 25 positive diagnoses.

Meanwhile, customer orders have spiked at Amazon as retail stores have temporarily shuttered and people on lockdown are going online to order household goods and food. Amazon’s challenge is to keep up with these orders even as attendance rates on some shifts have fallen as low as 53%.

To entice people to come to work, the Missouri-based HR associate said management in her building is hosting raffles, offering free, prepackaged snacks, and sharing positive comments from customers. “We’re supposed to post them for the associates to see that what they're doing is needed and essential,” she said.

The company is also taking steps to make sure employees who may be contagious are sent home so they can’t infect coworkers. When employees test positive for COVID-19, Amazon uses a combination of video surveillance and its package-scanning system, which tracks workers’ movements throughout a warehouse, to determine which employees have come into “close contact” with infected workers and inform them of their exposure. Amazon said it asks those people to stay home and pays them for up to 14 days.

According to employee screening documents provided to Amazon HR staff on March 20 and reviewed by BuzzFeed News, Amazon employees who are exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19, including a fever or a sore throat, are asked to go home and use vacation pay if they have it— but if an employee reports that a family member has tested positive for COVID-19, “the associate does not need to be sent home at this time.” HR managers should “encourage” employees to “remain at work as long as they are symptom-free.”

It was unclear whether this was still the policy. Amazon has said policies put in place three weeks ago may no longer be current, but it has not provided details.

Until this week, the CDC had recommended that workers exposed to the coronavirus stay home. But on Wednesday evening, the CDC issued an update on its safety guidelines for “critical infrastructure workers” who’ve been exposed to the coronavirus. This new guidance says that workers who’ve been exposed to someone with a confirmed or suspected case of COVID-19 may continue reporting to work “provided they remain asymptomatic and additional precautions are implemented to protect them and the community.” Those precautions include temperature checks, 6 feet of social distancing, wearing a mask, and disinfecting “offices, bathrooms, common areas, shared electronic equipment routinely.”

Amazon instituted temperature checks last week and began distributing masks to warehouse employees this week. The company also said it’s experimenting with disinfectant fogging, spraying disinfectant to kill any virus that may be in the air. Amazon has said it’s working to enforce social distancing in its warehouses, but employees say the nature of the work, layout of the buildings, and number of workers on shift at a time make it difficult to stay 6 feet away from each other at all times.

At the Missouri facility, the company has also closed access to lockers and staggered shift start times to prevent workers from concentrating in crowded places. But the building runs 24 hours a day, and the cleaning crew only has an hour and a half in the afternoon to work without associates present. An HR employee there said she worries it’s not enough.

“It’s a pacifier,” she said. “It’s ‘Yes, we’re protecting you — but ... we’re not really doing anything.’ It’s meant to make you feel more comfortable so you can come to work.”

She said no one at her building so far has received quarantine pay, which she said is confusing given what Amazon has said publicly.

“It’s a lot of frustration for us as HR,” she said. “There's nothing we can do.”

MORE ON THIS

Despite The New Coronavirus Law, Workers At These Big Companies Say They Still Must Work Sick Or Lose PayAlbert Samaha · April 10, 2020
Amazon Will Give Partial Pay To Employees It Sends Home With Fevers During The Coronavirus PandemicCaroline O'Donovan · April 7, 2020
Some Amazon Employees With Fevers Are Being Sent Home Without PayCaroline O'Donovan · April 2, 2020
As More Amazon Employees Contract The Coronavirus, Workers Are Walking Off The JobCaroline O'Donovan · March 31, 2020
They Work Inside Target Stores — With Fewer Coronavirus Protections Than Target EmployeesKatie J.M. Baker · April 9, 2020

Coronavirus In The Workplace:

 BuzzFeed News looks at how companies and employees are handling the coronavirus pandemic.
As More Amazon Employees Contract The Coronavirus, Workers Are Walking Off The Job
Amazon Said That During The Pandemic, Sales Are Soaring. Workers Say They Feel Unsafe.
These Retailers Have Been Staying Open. Employees Say They’re Afraid For Themselves And Others.
Starbucks Employees Got Sick. Starbucks Stores Stayed Open.
Costco Made Corporate Staff Come To The Office. An Employee Died Of COVID-19. The Office Is Still Open.

Caroline O'Donovan is a senior technology reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in San Francisco.

Amazon Fired Employee Involved In Workplace Organizing In Minnesota, Sources Say

The termination of the Minneapolis-based employee follows Amazon’s firing of one Staten Island warehouse associate and two Seattle tech workers who’ve spoken out against the company’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Caroline O'DonovanBuzzFeed News Reporter Posted on April 14, 2020


As the coronavirus pandemic puts a spotlight on working conditions inside Amazon warehouses, the company fired at least one warehouse employee in Minnesota last week who was involved in labor organizing at one of its fulfillment centers there, according to two workers and other sources.


The fired worker, Bashir Mohamed, said that in addition to organizing workers to advocate for better working conditions, he had begun pushing for more rigorous cleaning and other measures to protect against the transmission of the coronavirus. Mohamed, who worked at the warehouse for three years, said he believes that his workplace advocacy is why he was fired.

Amazon, however, told him that he was terminated because he refused to speak to his supervisor. Mohamed did not deny that allegation, although he accused his supervisor of treating him unfairly.

A second employee at the Minnesota Amazon facility also told BuzzFeed News that he believed Amazon was targeting workers involved with walkouts and production slowdowns over the last year, in some cases by selectively reprimanding them for failing to comply with social distancing protocols at work during the pandemic. That worker, who was also involved in organizing, said he was written up for such an infraction last week.

He did not deny violating the social distance rules, but said crowded warehouses make it hard to avoid. He said he fears he may also soon be fired.


Amazon didn’t immediately respond to questions Monday night regarding the situation in Minnesota.

The move comes just two weeks after the company came under fire for terminating New York-based worker Chris Smalls, who was involved with a walkout at a Staten Island warehouse to protest alleged unsafe working conditions during the coronavirus pandemic.

When Smalls was fired, Amazon said he had violated its policies by entering the fulfillment center, despite being placed in quarantine by the company due to potential exposure to the coronavirus. New York Attorney General Letitia James and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio both called for investigations into Smalls' termination last month.
If you're someone who is seeing the impact of the coronavirus firsthand, we’d like to hear from you. Reach out to us via one of our tip line channels.

Amazon last week also fired Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, two Seattle-based employees who were leaders of the Amazon Employees for Climate Justice group, the Washington Post first reported late Tuesday. Both had also been outspoken supporters for safer conditions for Amazon warehouse workers, most recently during the coronavirus pandemic.



Regarding Cunningham and Costa, Amazon said, “We support every employee’s right to criticize their employer’s working conditions, but that does not come with blanket immunity against any and all internal policies. We terminated these employees for repeatedly violating internal policies.”

Amazon employees in Chicago, Detroit, and New York have staged walkouts and protests at Amazon facilities in recent weeks in response to what workers say is the company’s insufficient response to the coronavirus pandemic. Amazon’s business has surged as brick and mortar business closes and customers flock online for necessities. But workers worry that they aren’t properly protected from the contagious disease while on the job.

As of last week, more than 70 Amazon facilities had at least one employee who tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, according to the Athena Coalition, an alliance of advocacy groups that focuses on working conditions at Amazon.

The Minnesota fulfillment center was the site of the first major Amazon employee strike in the United States in July 2019.

MULTICULTURALISM
Yukon Neighbours Use Pandemic Time To Bust Out Bagpipes, Bhangra
This is pure joy.

HuffPost Canada Staff   April 6, 2020

There are plenty of ways people are coming together during the global coronavirus pandemic, but this cross-cultural collaboration of two neighbours in Canada’s northern wilderness is lifting us all up.

Gurdeep Pandher, a public servant in the technology sector who also teaches bhangra dancing, and Jordan Lincez, a teacher who also plays the bagpipes, joined forces to create this very Canadian video. It was shot outside their cabins near Yukon’s Lake Laberge, about 50 kilometres north of Whitehorse.

Watch the video above.

Pandher said he wanted to “promote how we can connect and do things together with our friends or neighbours while maintaining social distancing and also to showcase the beauty of our Canadian cross-culturism.”

Lincez, who played the song “High Road to Linton,” said cold weather is hard on the bagpipes and makes playing unpredictable. “But what really counts for me was having fun, doing what I love doing in the ‘new normal,’ and bringing smiles and sharing joy with others during this time of crisis,” he told HuffPost Canada via email.

Pandher has a history of making lovely videos to promote cultural unity. He’s taught the mayor of Whitehorse how to tie a Sikh turban, danced with a Paralympian, and choreographed a bhangra dance number with the Canadian military.

During the pandemic, he has continued to teach bhangra, which originated from Punjab folk dancing, through online classes.

Friends, let me teach you an easy and fun bhangra move! pic.twitter.com/jb17xV5Y9Y— Gurdeep Pandher of Yukon (@GurdeepPandher) April 3, 2020

Here are videos/photos of people who tagged me after taking my online class (using with permission). Please add your name in my list at https://t.co/ybfnyOjDQk if you want me to inform you about my upcoming classes! pic.twitter.com/docuwuFvd7— Gurdeep Pandher of Yukon (@GurdeepPandher) March 31, 2020

“I live in a forest on open and big Yukon land, so it is helpful to stay away from the pandemic risks,” Pandher told HuffPost Canada. “But still, I am following all the health guidelines and use precautions if I need to go to town to get groceries. Living on land is so organic, nurturing and so beautiful.”

Lincez, who teaches Grades 4 and 5 at École Whitehorse Elementary, said, “It’s been difficult talking with my family through windows and I miss being able to hug friends, but I’m hopeful that the precautions are giving us an opportunity to slow down, be more present, and refocus on the important things in life: love, community and well-being.”

CANADA 
Coronavirus Is Making Domestic Violence More Severe, Crisis Workers Say

There have been at least three suspected cases of gender-based murder in Canada since COVID-19 broke out, and crisis workers told VICE they expect the abuse to escalate.

By Anya Zoledziowski Apr 13 2020

CRISIS WORKERS TOLD VICE THAT WOMEN'S SHELTERS HAVE BEEN AT CAPACITY SINCE THE PANDEMIC STARTED, SO WOMEN ARE HAVING A HARDER TIME FLEEING DANGEROUS SITUATIONS. PHOTO BY JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES

This article includes graphic details that may be difficult for some readers.

Earlier this month, local police broke into a private home in Brockville, city in eastern Ontario, and found two bodies—a man and a woman—after receiving a tip from a concerned caller.

The discovery of the suspected murder-suicide, first reported by the Ottawa Citizen , followed a disgruntled Facebook post by a suspect who professed his love for the victim before apologizing for the accidental shooting. He referred to his “unborn child” in the post and accused his partner of cheating.

“I should have never been emotional with a gun,” the suspect said, before asking viewers to take care of the 13-month-old girl who police found unharmed at the scene.

In Hammonds Plains, Nova Scotia, Police have charged a man with second-degree murder after they found a woman’s body in a private home two weeks ago. In Sundre, Alberta, RCMP are investigating a suspected murder-suicide after discovering the bodies of a 41-year-old woman and 35-year-old man late last month.

As the world grapples with the ongoing novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, governments have repeatedly called for people to practice physical distancing by staying at home. The point of self-isolating, they say, is to prevent exposure to the virus.

But reports have found that this mandatory physical distancing has resulted in an onslaught of domestic abuse cases internationally. And evidence suggesting that COVID-19 has increased the severity of the violence—and resulted in fewer ways out of dangerous situations—is also starting to emerge.

Argentina has reported at least six femicides (murders of women because of their gender) since the pandemic started. In Turkey, at least 21 women have been killed since early March. And the United Nations has specifically called for concerted efforts to prevent gender-based violence in Central America as physical distancing measures continue.

Each of the crisis workers VICE spoke with said they are expecting the worrisome trend to escalate in Canada, with crisis lines working swiftly since the government first announced physical distancing measures in mid-March. One in ten women are “very or extremely” concerned about the possibility of violence in the home, according to new data released by Statistics Canada on Wednesday.

According to Yvonne Harding, a resource development manager with Toronto’s Assaulted Women’s Helpline (AWH), COVID-19 conditions are “ripe” for abusers.

“It’s hard for good relationships to be in close quarters,” Harding said, adding that non-stop close proximity and COVID-19-related job loss exacerbates household stress that can lead to violence. Plus, abusers feel emboldened because they know their partners can’t access support as readily as they used to, she said.

In the pre-COVID-19 era, many crisis calls detailed aggressive threats of violence, but now, the same threats have turned into action, Harding said.

Women who need to escape to a nearby coffee shop or a friends house can’t do that either, Harding said.

That’s because emergency orders issued across the country have shuttered businesses deemed “non-essential,” including dine-in locales and libraries, and officials have repeatedly told people to avoid entering houses that aren’t their own.

“Partners are even telling others they have COVID-19 to keep people in the house,” Harding said.

An AWH counsellor who uses the alias “Suzanna” to protect her privacy told VICE her job has become “more complicated” because victims now call while in close physical proximity to their abusive partners.

“It is awful,” said Suzanna.

She said she has received urgent calls from women whispering while their husbands are in the backyard or asleep in the next room.

Under normal circumstances, Suzanna would tell clients who aren’t in immediate risk to call back from a safe environment. Now, she encourages them to take their children out for a walk or access a relatively private room, so they can chat as safely as possible, as soon as possible.

Suzanna said she feels like a 911 dispatcher now because she has to work very quickly. She works with victims to determine a course of action. If a woman says she’s ready to leave her home, Suzanna has to break the hard news: women’s shelters are at capacity. The AWH connects women to Toronto’s Central Intake, which will likely redirect victims to a homeless shelter, Suzanna said.

“It’s grim and messy and painful, you know, leaving your house with a suitcase and child, and staying in a homeless shelter,” Suzanna said. “But women are doing that over and over again.”

Vancouver’s Battered Women’s Support Services (BWSS) started preparing for a spike in severe domestic violence before the pandemic reached Canada, the organization’s executive director, Angela Marie MacDougall, told VICE.

MacDougall has connections in China who worked on the frontlines of COVID-19-related domestic assault as early as January, and she reached out in February to ask her Chinese counterparts for advice.

Following the tips, the BWSS extended their crisis line’s operating hours to 24/7 service, and only the most experienced counsellors are fielding calls now. MacDougall has also encouraged landlords, strata councils, and building managers to publicly post contact information for crisis lines and supports, so that victims have easy, widespread access to information.

As in Toronto and elsewhere, domestic violence in Vancouver is marred with horror stories unique to COVID-19.

The BWSS has received calls from women fearing for their health after their partners leave for extended periods of time, return home, and refuse to wash their hands. Others can’t access shampoo or soap because abusers are withholding products. Another caller told BWSS that her dad said that members of the family are “probably going to die tonight.”


“A lot of calls we’re getting are really despondent,” MacDougall said. “There’s a lot of depression and loneliness.”

BWSS said they’ve secured an entire floor at a hotel for women fleeing violence, as well as transition houses “here and there.”

The Canadian government has allocated up to $26 million in funding to provide about 575 women’s shelters and up to $4 million will be distributed to sexual assault centres across the country.

But most shelters are full, MacDougall said, calling the funding “completely inadequate.”

The only way to ensure safety for women is to make sure they have sustained access to information throughout the duration of the pandemic, she said, and to secure more safe housing.

“Governments around the world are imposing these lockdowns without making sufficient provisions for domestic violence victims,” MacDougall said.

“We have to do everything we can to prevent domestic violence, whether it’s straight up a man killing a woman or a man killing a woman and then himself.”

If you or someone you know is experiencing abuse in Canada, 24/7 support in your region is available here.

CANADA
Deaths From COVID-19 In Long-Term Care Homes Will Rise, Even As Cases Slow: Theresa Tam

The federal government has released non-binding guidelines for all care homes in the country.

NON BINDING WELL THAT'S AS EFFECTIVE AS SELF
REGULATION
Laura Osman Canadian Press

ADRIAN WYLD/CPChief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam responds to a question during a news conference in Ottawa on April 13, 2020.

OTTAWA — The number of deaths in long-term care facilities is expected to keep rising, even as the growth of overall COVID-19 cases begins to slow, Canada’s top public health official warned Monday.

Dr. Theresa Tam, the chief public health officer, said the spread of the virus in nursing and retirement homes has been at the root of half of the more than 700 deaths across the country.

“Even as the numbers of cases slows down the number of deaths, unfortunately, are expected to increase,” Tam said at a media briefing in Ottawa.

Last week the federal government released its projected trajectory for the outbreak. The total number of deaths projected in Canada — between 4,400 and 44,000 in the best-case scenario — was based on a fatality rate of 1.1 per cent.

On Monday, Tam said that fatality rate is expected to rise given the outbreaks in long-term care homes across the country.

The news follows a gruesome weekend discovery in a private long-term care home in Dorval, Que., where police are investigating the deaths of 31 people since March 13. Five of the deaths have been definitively linked to COVID-19.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault alleged there was “gross negligence,” at Residence Herron.

But Quebec is not alone in its struggle to contain cases in seniors’ and long-term care homes, Tam said.

“Almost all jurisdictions are essentially trying to deal with the outbreaks at long-term care facilities,” she said. “That’s really across the board.”

Twenty-nine residents in a 65-bed nursing home in Bobcaygeon, Ont., have died amid the pandemic. Eighteen deaths at North Vancouver’s Lynn Valley Care Centre have been attributed to COVID-19. Other facilities from coast to coast have had outbreaks and in many cases numerous workers have been sickened as well.

While provinces and territories are ultimately responsible for their own public health response to the pandemic, federal Seniors Minister Deb Schulte highlighted new federal guidelines for all care homes in the country to try to stall the spread of the virus in other facilities that care for vulnerable people.

Coroner Investigating 31 Deaths At Residence Herron Quebec Seniors' Home

Premier Francois Legault said at least five deaths were linked to the coronavirus.


Morgan Lowrie Canadian PressNEWS
04/12/2020

MONTREAL — The Quebec coroner’s office announced Sunday it will investigate the deaths of dozens of seniors at a private long-term care facility west of Montreal linked to what Premier Francois Legault has described as a possible case of “gross negligence.”

The office said in a statement that it will probe the circumstances surrounding the deaths and issue recommendations if needed.

“Remember that coroners intervene in cases of deaths that are violent, obscure or could have occurred following negligence,” the coroner’s office said in a statement.

A police investigation was launched over the weekend after regional health authorities were able to access patient files at the Residence Herron and found that 31 of the residence’s 150 or so seniors had died since March 13. Quebec’s health department is also investigating.

THE CANADIAN PRESS Quebec Premier Francois Legault coughs into his hand as he speaks at a news conference on the COVID-19 pandemic on Saturday.
Legault said at least five of the deaths were due to COVID-19, but that number could rise.

“Quite honestly, I think ... there was gross negligence at Residence Herron,” Legault said on Saturday.

The authorities first inspected Residence Herron on March 29, three days after word of the first death. They found the residence “deserted” as staff had walked off the job.

Lynne McVey, head of the health board, has said her team began assisting the short-staffed workers to feed, wash and change patients, but only learned the full scope of the problem after getting a legal order allowing them to view families’ contact information and patient medical files.
Residences linked to large portion of COVID-19 deaths

Katasa Groupe, which owns the residence and several others, has not answered requests for comment, and the home is now under government trusteeship.

The Residence Herron story is only the latest report into troubling conditions at seniors’ and long-term care homes, which have been linked to a large percentage of the country’s COVID-19 deaths.

That includes another residence in Laval, north of Montreal, where 21 people have died and 115 have tested positive for COVID-19.

The coroner’s office said in its statement that it is not currently investigating other homes, but is watching the situation and could intervene if needed.

In a statement on Sunday, the provincial health department confirmed it would proceed to inspect all the province’s 40 private long-term care centres in the coming days.

“Every effort is being made to protect seniors and avoid tragic situations such as the one observed in the Herron private residential and long-term care centre that is not covered by an agreement,” the statement said.

Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, on Sunday lamented the deaths that COVID-19 has caused in long-term care facilities across the country, which she described in a statement as a “tragic legacy of this pandemic.”

“These heart-breaking events underscored the need for stringent infection prevention and control measures and led to the development of infection prevention and control guidance for long-term care homes,” she added.

That guidance includes strict rules around who can enter such facilities and detailed instructions on how to minimize the chances of an outbreak through proper hygiene and screening.

The Quebec ombudsman launched an investigation into the Residence Herron in 2017 after it received complaints including inadequate nursing care, a poor approach towards patients with cognitive difficulties, complaints over food and a lack communication with families.

The investigation found that the facility was providing adequate care, but the ombudsman cautioned in its report that management needed to ensure there was enough suitably-trained staff, given its intention to increase its number of patients.

In 2019, an inspection by Health and Social Services did not note any particular problems with clinical practices, but issued recommendations including the development of a policy to combat mistreatment, as well as improved communications with residents and their families, particularly in the areas of residents’ rights, end-of-life decisions and palliative care.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 12, 2020

With files from Lee Berthiaume

THAT OTHER EPIDEMIC 

Ebola deaths in Congo halt plan to declare virus eradicated

A worker from the World Health Organization prepares to administer an experimental Ebola vaccination in Mbandaka, Democratic Republic of the Congo, on May 21, 2018. File Photo by STR/EPA-EFE

April 13 (UPI) -- An 11-year-old girl in the Democratic Republic of Congo has died of the Ebola virus, the second in recent days to succumb, concerning experts that the disease may still be lingering in the African country.

Officials reported the girl's death Sunday. A 26-year-old man died of Ebola in Beni on Friday. Both deaths occurred in the nation's northeast.

Congolese authorities had believed the virus was eradicated after going for several weeks without any new cases, but the new deaths have led officials to halt plans to announce the outbreak is officially over.

"[The World Health Organization] has worked side by side with health responders from the DRC for over 18 months and our teams are right now supporting the investigation into this latest case," Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO's regional director for Africa said after the first death.

"Although the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic adds challenges, we will continue this joint effort until we can declare the end of this Ebola outbreak together."

The DRC had been trying to corral the second-worst Ebola outbreak in history since 2018. It's now experienced almost 2,300 deaths and 3,400 confirmed cases from the new outbreak.

An outbreak began in West Africa in 2014 that killed 11,300 people in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Ebola is a tropical fever first detected in Sudan and Congo in 1976.

CANADA, EH
Great, the Anti-Vaxxer Coronavirus Protests Are Here
Children and senior citizens were both present at the rally of 20 people in Vancouver.

IF THEIR CONSPIRACY FEARS WERE TRUE, THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN ARRESTED, DISAPPEARED AND WE WOULD NOT BE READING THIS....JUST SAYING 

By Mack Lamoureux Apr 13 2020,


PHOTO SUPPLIED BY SUSAN STANDFIELD-SPOONER

On Easter Sunday, a group of around fourteen people, led by an anti-vaxxer and documented by a conspiracy vlogger, intentionally broke social distancing and took to the streets of Vancouver.

Videos show the group—which featured both older people and a child—holding a sign featuring an illustration of the coronavirus and the words “Fake News” l. The rally even featured one grey-haired person wearing a Guy Fawkes mask with sunglasses over it. In photos and videos, the protesters seem to pay no heed to the six feet rule experts have recommended to avoid the spread of COVID-19


Organizer Susan Standfield-Spooner told VICE that the quarantine measures put in place by the government have caused her to lose about 80% of the income she and her husband made from a consulting company. She said that she believes the deaths and homelessness that come from the financial strife brought about by the closures of business are far worse than the health impact of COVID-19, which has killed 735 Canadians as of Monday.

Social distancing measures are in place in an attempt to flatten the curve to slow the spread of COVID-19 so hospitals don’t become overwhelmed and cause an even larger loss of life.

A PHOTO OF THE RALLY WALKING IN DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER. PHOTO VIA STANDFIELD-SPOONER

Standfield-Spooner said she didn’t even know most of the people at the rally—a 70-year-old woman helped organize the event. The senior woman was present at the rally. Experts warn that those 70 years and older are the most at risk for dying from the disease. Standfield-Spooner said she believes the virus is real but the death tally has been exaggerated and that it was intentionally released upon the world. She also thinks the disease is infectious but not deadly, “like herpes.” Standfield-Spooner also has said that she believes the pandemic is an attempt by elites to strip citizens of their rights and vaccinate them. Social media posts show that she’s held anti-vaccinations beliefs for several years.

In British Columbia, like the majority of the rest of the country, non-essential businesses are closed and public gatherings are banned.

“Personally, my life has been destroyed,” said Standfield-Spooner. “I'm not sitting around enjoying it. I'm screwed. People would be surprised because I grew up, you know, in the status quo world of opportunity. I'm educated, have a wealthy background, whatever, but not right now. Right now, personally, I'm in the loser group.”

“(Chief Public Health Officer of Canada) Teresa Tam, I don’t know how she's sleeping at night,” Standfield-Spooner said.


Standfield-Spooner said this march was just a trial run and bigger rallies are on the way.

Stanfield-Spooner was only able to get a small group out in Vancouver but did inspire a similar rally in Vernon B.C. at the same time. At the Vernon rally attendees—even those who described the virus as a hoax—stood six feet apart. The Vernon rally's organizer told a local publication that, like Standfield-Spooner, they believe social distancing for healthy people is "tyranny."

"Waiting in lines outside of stores is not normal—we don't want it anymore, and it needs to stop," Sylvia Herchen told Castanet.

The march was attended and promoted by Dan Dicks, a bit player in the Canadian conspiracy scene. Dicks sent a tweet out from the rally—showing him in aviators talking about how people are fighting back—that went viral.

“Vancouverites aren’t drinking the kool-aid,” Dicks said in the video. “They’re getting out and getting together here to show the world that we’re not OK with unlawful orders and quarantines and lockdowns.”

Dicks had originally posted a longer video of the rally but it was removed by YouTube, which is cracking down on conspiracy videos. Dicks boasts a YouTube channel called Press for Truth with over 260,000 subscribers in which he posts mishmash of videos ranging from his more conspiracy-centric videos about globalists, wireless technology, and Trudeau’s evil plans; to more far-right videos like an endorsement of alt-right figure Faith Goldy during her Toronto mayoral campaigns, and videos railing against the irregular migrants at Roxham Road.


Recently Dicks has turned his eye to COVID-19 and conspiracies surrounding that, with a focus on the “tyranny” of self-isolation. Experts have warned that during a pandemic conspiracies can do real damage to real people. As for the 70-year-old organizer who helped organize the anti-lockdown rally,Standfield-Spooner said it was her choice to come out.

“People participate in life by choice,” said Standfield-Spooner. “It's more likely there's a woman there who was 70, I think she was the oldest… I think she’s more likely to die from a car accident in Canada.”


There were 160 car accident fatalities per month in Canada in 2018, roughly 600 less than the amount of people who have died due to coronavirus over the last month.

Follow Mack Lamoureux on Twitter.

Walmart hid that it was under criminal investigation for opioid sales: report

Published  April 13, 2020 By Pro Publica

by Jesse Eisinger

Walmart, a defendant in the massive lawsuit brought by states and municipalities around the country that accuses a broad range of companies of lax controls over opioid sales, failed to reveal that it had been under criminal investigation for similar conduct, according to plaintiffs in the case.

Linda Singer, a partner at Motley Rice, which represents multiple states, counties and municipalities in the litigation, alleges that the giant retailer engaged in “pervasive obstruction,” according to a letter sent late last month to the special master in charge of wrangling the evidence in the case, which is being heard in federal court in Cleveland.

The plaintiffs will seek to have the court sanction Walmart for its behavior.

In her letter to Special Master David Cohen, Singer cited a recent ProPublica article that revealed that the U.S. attorney of the Eastern District of Texas sought to charge the company criminally for its opioid dispensing practices. Walmart, which denies any criminality, avoided the charges by appealing to Trump appointees at the Justice Department, who repeatedly overruled the Texas prosecutors.

The plaintiff’s allegations echo prosecutors’ contentions that Walmart was flouting evidence requests during the federal investigation. Last fall, the Eastern District’s civil chief resigned in protest, accusing the company of failing to comply with a subpoena demanding information from the company.

Singer, a former attorney general for Washington, D.C., wrote that the company and Jones Day — the same law firm that represented Walmart in the federal investigation — have produced only 18,466 documents totaling less than 110,000 pages in a period of over two years in the litigation, compared with the company’s production of about 1 million pages of documents and over 6 million prescriptions in the Justice Department investigation, which began in late 2016.

Singer also faulted the company for not giving over information about Brad Nelson, the Walmart opioid compliance manager who became a criminal target in the federal investigation, despite the fact that plaintiffs had specifically requested information about him.

Last Thursday, the special master ruled in favor of the plaintiffs on claims relating to Nelson. He ordered the company to produce the documents. The special master did not indicate when he might rule on the other claims in Singer’s letter.

Walmart declined to respond in detail to Singer’s claims. In a two-sentence statement, spokesman Randy Hargrove wrote: “These allegations by the plaintiffs in the ongoing Opioid MDL litigation are without merit and are part of an ongoing discovery dispute. Walmart will respond to these claims under the process set forth by the Special Master.” Jones Day’s lead partner representing Walmart, Karen Hewitt, did not respond to a request for comment.

Walmart’s alleged lapses are “unusual and noteworthy,” said A. Benjamin Spencer, a law professor and expert on civil procedure at the University of Virginia School of Law. “Obfuscating or misleading adversaries and the court with respect to the existence of responsive material is sanctionable discovery misconduct.

In an interview with ProPublica before he ruled on the dispute relating to Nelson, Cohen, the special master, declined to address the specific allegations. “In a litigation of this size,” he said, such evidentiary disputes are “within the range of normal. It’s called an adversarial process and it’s been adversarial.” He said that the plaintiff’s allegations were not “frivolous,” but hastened to add he was not saying they were meritorious either.

Courts have repeatedly punished Walmart for evidence abuses. In 2018, a federal judge in the U.S. District of Puerto Rico sanctioned the company for intentionally destroying important evidence, according to Bloomberg Law. The judge cited 18 other cases where the company had hidden evidence. One 1999 opinion by a Texas District Court judge found that Walmart “has chosen extreme discovery abuse as a litigation strategy” and concluded that “it seems Wal-Mart has yet to learn a lesson from the repeated imposition of sanctions.” Throughout the 1990s, the company had at least seven different sanctions for discovery and evidence violations. As recently as February, a Nueces County Court in Texas fined the company $35,000 for similar behavior.

In an email follow-up responding to this history, Walmart’s Hargrove wrote: “We take our discovery obligations seriously and the instances raised by ProPublica, some of which are more than 20 years old, do not reflect our high ethical standards or the careful and reasonable approach we take in litigation. As with any large company, Walmart has a substantial litigation portfolio. The number of cases involving litigated discovery disputes, and certainly those in which Walmart has been sanctioned, is miniscule compared to the number of cases Walmart litigates.”

In the multidistrict litigation, whose defendants include numerous opioid manufacturers and distributors as well as other pharmacy chains, the plaintiffs say they repeatedly requested that Walmart produce files on Nelson. Nelson was a manager in charge of informing the company’s pharmacists of opioid law and the company’s compliance policies. He also kept the Drug Enforcement Agency informed of instances where Walmart pharmacists refused to fill suspicious opioid prescriptions, as part of its compliance with a secret memorandum of agreement the company had reached with the DEA after earlier problems in Walmart’s painkiller distribution.

As ProPublica previously detailed, some of the Texas prosecutors at one point pushed to indict Nelson because of his role overseeing opioid compliance. Prosecutors uncovered an email Nelson wrote to a sales manager saying Walmart employee time was better spent “driving sales” than focusing on opioid compliance. (Nelson’s lawyer did not return multiple requests for comment for ProPublica’s initial article on the case.)

Walmart’s own account puts Nelson at the center of its opioid compliance efforts. The company said he was a vigilant compliance official who urged pharmacists to alert the company when they had refused to fill opioid prescriptions. It depicted him as a popular middle manager who was the first in the office every morning. He’d come in at 4:30 or 5 a.m. and spend the next three hours faxing refusals to fill to the DEA, the company said. After the effort, Walmart said, he would make morning popcorn for his colleagues.

Initially, in August 2018, the plaintiffs asked for records from Walmart’s “Health & Wellness Director of Controlled Substances.” A couple of months later, they requested files for the “Director, Health & Wellness Practice Compliance: 2006 – 2016.”

Jones Day responded that the title “Director, Health & Wellness Practice Compliance” “either did not exist or w[as] not held by individuals with relevant roles during [2006-2016],” according to the letter.

Yet those descriptions seemed to fit Nelson. He eventually held the title of Director of U.S. Ethics and Compliance within Walmart’s Health and Wellness Practice Compliance group.

On Feb. 17, 2020, the plaintiffs specifically requested Nelson’s documents. Walmart did not comply with the request. On Friday, Motley Rice requested Nelson’s materials again.

In her initial letter, Singer contends that “the only reasonable inference is that Jones Day deliberately failed to identify Mr. Nelson as a person with knowledge of the claims at issue in this case and deliberately refused to produce Mr. Nelson’s documents in order to conceal damaging information.” She concludes that “Walmart’s and Jones Day’s conduct with respect to the production of Mr. Nelson’s documents raises serious questions as to the candor of their representations to Plaintiffs and to the Court.”

The plaintiffs make other claims as well. While the company told the government that it had investigated its practices and culled information from its “Investigative Risk Operations Center,” when the plaintiffs searched documents that Walmart had given over in discovery for any reference to that center, the search came back empty.

And while Jones Day told the federal government, in a letter on Aug. 10, 2018, about Walmart revenue and profit contribution from opioids, the law firm told plaintiffs that such data did not exist, the plaintiffs allege.

Doris Burke contributed reporting.

Hospital floors, staff's shoes test positive for COVID-19

THE NEED FOR HOSPITAL CUSTODIANS IS ESSENTIAL

A healthcare worker reacts while taking a break outside at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center on April 6 in New York City. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

April 13 (UPI) -- The new coronavirus survives on the floors of hospitals treating infected patients and on the shoes of medical staff caring for them, according to new data released Monday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The report, based on findings from Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan, China, where the global COVID-19 pandemic began, notes that 94 percent of samples taken from floors in the facility's intensive care unit -- and 100 percent of those taken from one of the general wards used to treat patients with severe symptoms -- tested positive for coronavirus during the height of the outbreak in the city.

Researchers also found that half of the samples from the soles of the ICU medical staff shoes tested positive for the virus, suggesting that "the soles of medical staff shoes might function as carriers." They cited this as a likely reason for why the floors of the hospital's pharmacy tested positive for the virus, despite the fact that COVID-19 patients were not allowed in that area.


RELATED Cheap ventilator made from ambulance resuscitation bags


In general, the authors believe that respiratory droplets falling to the floor were moved by both gravity and airflow, leading to distribution of the virus.

They also documented that the virus' presence lingered on "objects that were frequently touched by medical staff or patients." Six of eight computer mice tested positive, as did three of five trash cans in the ICU, six of 14 sickbed handrails and a doorknob in the general ward. Sporadic positive results were also obtained from sleeve cuffs and gloves of medical staff.
"These results suggest that medical staff should perform hand hygiene practices immediately after patient contact," the authors wrote.

The findings are significant because a study out of Italy, published last month by The Lancet, found that as many as one of five healthcare workers treating patients with COVID-19 may get infected with the virus. Although there is no complete count of how many U.S. healthcare workers have been sickened, estimates suggest several thousand have so far tested positive.because a study out of Italy, published last month by The Lancet, found that as many as one of five healthcare workers treating patients with COVID-19 may get infected with the virus. Although there is no complete count of how many U.S. healthcare workers have been sickened, estimates suggest several thousand have so far tested positive.

USA
Millions of renters face hardship once back payments come due

A sign is pictured on March 28 near a self-testing coronavirus site in Los Angeles, calling for a rent moratorium. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

April 13 (UPI) -- Although the federal government has ordered several safeguards for the U.S. economy and Americans facing hardship, one segment of the population feels its facing a serious problem that hasn't been fully addressed -- no money for rent.

The coronavirus emergency has cost millions of workers their jobs, and millions more are expected to join them in the coming weeks. Amid those mass layoffs, rent came due last week for the first time since the crisis caused nationwide closures and restrictions.


State and local officials have moved to provide some help, like barring landlords from evicting tenants. Under the varying rules, some states barred evictions for a few weeks while others are in place for the duration of the lockdowns.

Similarly, some governors have banned all evictions and others suspended them strictly for renters with coronavirus-related hardship.

Nowhere, though, are there measures that require landlords to cancel or forgive missed rent payments. That means, in most cases, many will be responsible for several months of back rent once the emergency moratoriums are lifted.

A growing national movement is calling for more help. Tags on social media, such as #CancelRent and #RentZero, are becoming more popular, and "rent strikes" are being organized from coast to coast, asking elected officials to step in.

In New York City, for example, tenants at a Brooklyn apartment building began a strike after many lost their jobs. The 1234 Pacific Street Tenant Association said it staged the protest in hopes that it would persuade property owners to share their renters' burden of responsibility.

"Everyone is aware of the inevitable choice that will result: Do I pay for my rent or my groceries?" the group said.

New York "Gov. [Andrew] Cuomo is advising us to stay inside, but many of us can no longer afford our homes," the association added. "He has provided no plan for what happens after the pandemic ends and the eviction moratorium is lifted, other than 'We'll see.'"

The tenants support a bill in the New York Legislature that seeks outright rent forgiveness for 90 days for residential and small business tenants. It also would provide some relief for small property owners.

RELATED Mortgage forbearance surges amid coronavirus pandemic

"We believe that housing is a human right," the tenants' association said. "Too often, it is treated as a particularly lucrative commodity to be traded on the market. We are now in a moment where most New Yorkers are experiencing the housing insecurity many of us were already living with before this crisis.

"We refuse to go hungry or without medical care in order to pay rent."

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders have called for rent forgiveness in New York and California. Biden advocates three months of forgiveness, while Sanders, who left the presidential race Wednesday, had favored the proposed New York law.

Further, advocacy groups on the West Coast are urging California Gov. Gavin Newsom to include rent cancellation as part of a forbearance period he has negotiated with major banks.

However, all efforts to provide such full protection for renters have met with little success. Without it, some fear, a substantial wave of homelessness in the United States is expected once accumulated back rents come due.

In Minnesota, the state Legislature has approved a $500 million coronavirus relief bill, but lawmakers omitted a request to include $100 million in direct rent subsidies to landlords.

Without such assistance, housing advocates say, a cascade of evictions will likely come in a few months -- and will affect not only low-income renters, but the mostly "mom-and-pop" landlords who serve them.

Anne Mavity, executive director of the Minnesota Housing Partnership, projects the crisis will sock landlords with $173 million in lost rent and potentially displace 85,000 renters in the state.

The $2 trillion relief package from Congress will include at least $1,200 stimulus payments to most Americans without children -- plus $500 per child to those who do -- but Mavity said that's a short-term measure for a longer-term crisis.

"The entire economy is not just going to turn back on a like a light switch. It will take time, and so I think the horizon for how long folks will need support to pay their rent is going to be a lot longer than we might be prepared for right now."

Mavity cautions, however, that "rent forgiveness" is not the magic answer, because ripple effects from millions of dollars in missed rent payments would impact the entire housing and financial infrastructure. She instead proposes subsidies for landlords.

"What we really need is a way to get those rents paid," she said.