A New Deal During COVID-19: A Million-Person Health Corps?

During a virtual event held on June 10th, experts discussed a proposal for putting Americans to work fighting COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has destroyed our health and economy. Several leading thinkers have proposed a massive public jobs program, reminiscent of the New Deal Civilian Conservation Corps and Works Progress Administration, that would hire hundreds of thousands who need employment to do much of the hard work of fighting COVID-19 and dramatically enhancing health care in the United States. Alan Khazei, founder of City Year, Be the Change, and current candidate for Congress, co-authored a proposal for an enormous “Emergency Service to Nation Jobs” effort that would engage hundreds of thousands of young people in the effort to contain COVID-19. Gregg Gonsalves and Amy Kapczynski of Yale University have proposed an even larger Community Health Corps that would “put millions of Americans to work caring for one another,” reduce our record levels of unemployment, and build social solidarity on a foundation of health. Join Alan, Amy, and Gregg for this conversation about why they think we need a million person health corps.

Participants include:

Gregg Gonsalves, Yale School of Public Health

Amy Kapczynski, Yale Law School

Alan Khazei, Be the Change

Archon Fung (Moderator), Harvard Kennedy School