Omicron: The wave of infections spread across the economy

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Shawn Donnan said in Bloomberg. An estimated 5 million workers were forced into home isolation last week, thanks to the highly transmissible variant of Omicron. The number of sick workers has crippled the airline industry over the holidays, and it’s now “a reality in factories, grocery stores and docks.” Restaurants like the Pizza Ledo chain in the Washington, DC, area had to close or operate fewer hours to address staff shortages, while “160 seafarers in West Coast ports had positive results. related” in a single day last week, straining supply. necklace. Even if the economic impact is “temporary, as most predict it could slow a fragile recovery.”

Alison Sider Says Airlines Are Really Shuffled The Wall Street Journal. Workers’ illness that began the week of Christmas has led to travel disruptions extending into this week, with some 30,000 flights wiped out since Christmas Eve. Travel demand is booming, but airlines operate under strict safety rules, making them less time consuming than other industries when it comes to staff shortages. A series of severe winter storms also “created the perfect conditions for travel chaos.” Peter Coy said in New York Times. The carriers have received $54 billion in federal funding “to make sure they stay on staff” during the pandemic. Then, this fall, “some airline executives even bragged to Wall Street analysts” about hiring fewer staff while keeping the flight schedule the same. That said, we probably shouldn’t blame “all the airlines” when everyone was similarly caught off guard by the spread of Omicron.

Nadine El-Bawab says small businesses are going through another tough winter ABC News. The spread of the virus is scaring customers right when it starts to seem like things are turning. At the same time, inflation increases the cost of raw materials and supplies. This time, however, the political message from the Democrats with this coronavirus wave is that businesses need to be open-minded, Lisa Kashinsky and Susannah Luthi said in a statement. Politico. Blue state leaders have “go further than most Republicans in closing businesses, enforcing social distancing and requiring masks to tame the spread of the virus.” However, most Democratic leaders are “sick of the strict shutdown” and see the effectiveness of a vaccine as a reason to keep the economy afloat.

Catherine Rampell says in Washington Posts. The December jobs report was disappointingly weak. Before Omicron spiked, people were “still sick and out of work.” Outbreaks in schools and daycare facilities continue to haunt working parents, healthcare workers being laid off and quitting, and some older Americans retiring early due to health problems. health risks. “Even if this Omicron wave wanes as quickly as it surged,” the economy “is still suffering from a public health crisis, like it was almost two years ago.”

This article was first published in the latest issue of Week magazine. If you want to read more like it, you can try the magazine’s six risk zeros here.