The COVID Care Crisis and its Implications for Legal Academia

Abstract

From February 2020, when the SARS COVID virus began to have global effects until now, the world has been in the midst of the worst viral pandemic in recent memory. No country was prepared for the rapid escalation of the spread of the virus worldwide that has taken nearly five million lives globally and over 700,000 in the United States alone. Even in March and April 2020, although cities had begun to quarantine and lockdown, none could have predicted the surges of cases and the longevity of the pandemic. Schools and businesses were closed only to open again and close again as the unpredictable virus took its course and as we all tried to haphazardly change to keep up. For many families, parents working and children learning from home utterly collapsed the private/public distinctions that allowed for some semblance of work-life balance. Others who were deemed “essential workers” like medical professionals, grocery store workers, delivery and postal workers, earning a livelihood literally meant risking one’s life and the lives of near family to earn a wage and to provide critical services. It is safe to say that the pandemic upended most of our lives.