Truthout
Despair and Disparity: The Uneven Burdens of COVID-19
Addressing how the pandemic intersects with issues of social, economic, environmental, racial, gender and disability justice.
![Despair and Disparity: The Uneven Burdens of COVID-19](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/04/2020_0428-covid-1200x675.jpg)
![President Trump speaks during the daily briefing of the White House Coronavirus Task Force at the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, April 13, 2020, in Washington, D.C.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/04/2020_0424-donald-trump-briefing-400x300.jpg)
News Networks Must Provide Equal Time to Rebut Trump’s Daily Campaign Events
No commander-in-chief should be spared from scrutiny in the midst of such a crisis.
![Protesters demonstrate in front of the U.S. Border Patrol facility where lawyers reported that detained migrant children were held unbathed and hungry on June 27, 2019, in Clint, Texas.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/04/2020_0424-migrant-child-detention-400x300.jpg)
The Courts Won’t Free Migrant Children Because of COVID-19. We Must.
Migrant jails don’t need court orders to expedite the release of children in custody. We must pressure them to do so.
![President Trump, seen reflected in a window, speaks with members of the coronavirus task force during a briefing in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on April 17, 2020, in Washington, D.C.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/04/2020_0423-trump-briefing-jf-400x300.jpg)
Take Care of Yourself and Your Family. Do Not Listen to the President.
Things are going to be different when this is done. Please do what you can to be here for that.
![Dr. Sonia Maciejewski, right, and Dr. Nita Patel, director of antibody discovery and vaccine development, look at a sample of a respiratory virus at Novavax labs in Rockville, Maryland, on March 20, 2020, one of the labs developing a vaccine for COVID-19.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/04/2020_0423-coronavirus-vaccine-400x300.jpg)
Before COVID-19, Big Pharma Was Neglecting Vaccine and Antiviral Research
Coronavirus is an opportunity to rake in public funding and turn out massive profits with few financial risks.
![Farm workers harvest zucchini on the Sam Accursio & Son's Farm on April 1, 2020, in Florida City, Florida.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/04/2020_0423-farm-worker-400x300.jpg)
Agricultural Workers Have Struggled for Decades. They Need COVID-19 Relief Now.
Amid the pandemic, those essential workers who grow our food and pick it are treated as if they are disposable.
![Brian Kemp](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/04/2020_0422-brian-kemp-400x300.jpg)
Governor Kemp Is Lubricating the Economic Machine With His Constituents’ Blood
Kemp ignored his COVID-19 task force, while Trump’s task force is laboring to ignore him. This is not good government.
![Workers stage a socially-distanced protest](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/04/2020_0422-protest-400x300.jpg)
Environmental and Labor Groups Team Up to Demand COVID-19 Relief
Nine days of action planned for Earth Day to May Day will highlight the intersections of climate and worker justice.
![People sit on a hillside overlooking oil pumpjacks at the Huntington Beach Oil Fields amidst the coronavirus pandemic on April 20, 2020, in Huntington Beach, California. Oil prices traded in negative territory for the first time as the spread of COVID-19 impacts global demand.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/04/2020_0421-oil-negative_-400x300.jpg)
The Day Petroleum Was Less Than Worthless
We now know that oil can cease to be important without the Earth tumbling into the sun. Where do we go from here?
![Activist Michelle Lozano puts a mask on her children Maya and Iker as day laborers and their supporters participate in a "Caravan for Essential and Excluded Workers" in Los Angeles, California, on April 14, 2020. The caravan calls on California Gov. Gavin Newsom to ensure that COVID-19 related emergency financial aid from the federal CARES Act reaches day laborers, undocumented workers and their families.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/04/2020_0420-undocumented-worker-protest-400x300.jpg)
States Must Step Up to Help Immigrants Left Out of the COVID-19 Recovery
States have a responsibility to protect all their people by providing support where the federal government has failed.
![Air conditioners and windows of New York City apartments](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/04/2020_0420heat-deaths-400x300.jpg)
Summer Heat Will Worsen the Pandemic for Poor Communities
Bill assistance and a moratorium on utility shutoffs will be crucial during a potentially record hot summer.