When the coronavirus pandemic reached the United States, it brought more damage with it than the initial public health emergency, bringing a pervasive recession whose full effects have yet to be released. The latest evidence of the coronavirus' deep impact on the economy was the U.S. Labor Department's weekly unemployment claims data for the week ended August 15, with the total regressing back above the 1 million claims mark after showing positive recovery signs the week prior. While progress can still be made in the short-term for the unemployed, like relief stimulus, most experts agree that any signs of recovery will remain weak until the virus is fully brought under control by either an effective treatment or vaccine.
Unemployment Stimulus
One of the major sticking points that is blocking the passage of new federal stimulus is the extension enhanced unemployment benefits of $600 per week for at least the end of the year.
Democratic lawmakers want to keep the benefit to help keep the millions of unemployed Americans afloat during their unemployment so they do not have to take on more debt. On the other side, Republicans want to limit enhanced benefits for they believe that they are an incentive to stay unemployed, and propose a different aid model to help the jobless.
The enhanced benefits, alongside other politics, has held up any meaningful government action, leaving unemployed Americans in a fiscal limbo while Congress has adjourned until early September.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has recently signed executive orders that included a prevision for an added $300 per week federal unemployment aid benefit, with the money coming from disaster relief savings funds. According to the Associated Press, 25 states are willing to apply the federal aid money to their unemployment programs, while other states remain undecided and two have declined. One reason states may be slow to act on the temporary benefit executive order is that may local officials expect Congress to eventually pass a new fiscal stimulus package.
In the meantime, the federal government estimates that the $300 per week payments will take at least three weeks to arrive to jobless Americans. For many, the money may just be too little too late.
Vaccine Update
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) set the terms for its Phase 3/late-stage clinical trials for its potential coronavirus vaccine on Thursday, stating that the pharmaceutical aims to test the candidate on up to 60,000 healthy volunteers in nearly 180 in the United States and eight other countries.
Notably, Johnson & Johnson's late stage trial is expected to have double the participants than trials from other leading coronavirus vaccine candidates from companies like Pfizer (NYSE: PFE)/BioNTech (NASDAQ: BTNX) and Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA). The company did not disclose the reason behind the much larger study, given that it will cost more and be time consuming. But, a company spokesperson stated that they drugmaker's late-stage trials as "intended to be as robust as possible, could include up to 60,000 participants and will be conducted in places with high incidence rates," quoted by Reuters.
The locations for the trials are going to be chosen from epidemiological data, with the company going to make its final decision soon and begin recruitment. Johnson & Johnson expects their vaccine to be available for use by early 2021, as long as it meets all regulatory requirements.