Speaker 1: Welcome to Prognosis. I'm Laura Carlson. It's day three and
Speaker 1: forty nine since coronavirus was declared a global pandemic. Today's
Speaker 1: main story the arts once thrived in New York City.
Speaker 1: But that's the industry that has lost the most jobs
Speaker 1: in the pandemic, and it's not yet clear what could
Speaker 1: bring those jobs and that vibrant culture back. But first,
Speaker 1: here's what happened in virus News today. A panel of
Speaker 1: outside advisors to the US Food and Drug Administration are
Speaker 1: vetting the Johnson and Johnson coronavirus vaccine today. It's one
Speaker 1: of the final steps toward likely authorization of the country's
Speaker 1: first one dose immunization against COVID nineteen. The panel is
Speaker 1: expected to vote that the vaccine's benefits outweigh its risks.
Speaker 1: If that happens, the FDA could grant emergency clearance within days,
Speaker 1: providing a badly needed boost to US vaccine supplies. Biden
Speaker 1: administration officials have said the US expects J and J
Speaker 1: to release three million to four million shots next week,
Speaker 1: assuming it's authorized for use. The company is ready to
Speaker 1: deliver twenty million doses by the end of March. According
Speaker 1: to an executive. Mexico's finance minister said more than eighty
Speaker 1: million people in Mexico should be vaccinated by July. Arturo Herrera,
Speaker 1: the minister, said the figure represents all of the targeted
Speaker 1: adult population. He added that thirty four million people would
Speaker 1: have received their vaccine by April. Finally, California surpassed fifty
Speaker 1: thousand deaths from COVID nineteen, according to data from its
Speaker 1: Health department. It's the first U S state to reach
Speaker 1: that bleak milestone. Almost half of the fatalities have come
Speaker 1: in the past two months, following a winter surgeon cases
Speaker 1: that strained hospitals and lead to lockdowns across the state.
Speaker 1: Since then, the outbreak has eased substantially. While the most
Speaker 1: populous state tops the US in total deaths, on a
Speaker 1: per capita basis, it ranks toward the middle. And Now
Speaker 1: for today's main story, New York City's museums, sports arenas,
Speaker 1: and entertainment venues are slowly coming back to life, but
Speaker 1: the sector has contracted dramatically under the pressure of the
Speaker 1: global pandemic. Jobs and arts, entertainment and recreation fell the
Speaker 1: most of all the city's economics sectors, erasing a decade
Speaker 1: of gains in what was once one of New York's
Speaker 1: most vibrant industries. I spoke to reporter Spencer Norris about
Speaker 1: what that means for cultural institutions and the city that
Speaker 1: was one of the sector's biggest boosters. New York City's
Speaker 1: arts and culture sector has been particularly hard hit by
Speaker 1: the pandemic. You know what kind of numbers are we
Speaker 1: looking at in terms of job losses over the past year.
Speaker 1: UH numbers in this UH, in this sector are pretty devastating.
Speaker 1: From December of two thousand nineteen through to December of
Speaker 1: two thousand twenty, the sector lost about two out of
Speaker 1: every three jobs within the city. About forty six percent
Speaker 1: of those jobs UM were in the Chelsea to Midtown
Speaker 1: High Manhattan area, So area UM likely got hit worse
Speaker 1: than just about anybody else. You know, what was the
Speaker 1: size of the arts and culture sector in New York
Speaker 1: pre pandemic? Right, so pre pandemic. Looking at the end
Speaker 1: of two thousand nineteen, New York accounted for about UM thousand,
Speaker 1: five hundred jobs in the private sector UM with about
Speaker 1: sixty two hundred establishments in the arts, entertainment and recreation industry.
Speaker 1: That's just based on the data that's in front of
Speaker 1: us from the State Controller's office. UM. But like I said,
Speaker 1: about two out of every three of those UM jobs
Speaker 1: have been lost since then, so we're down into the
Speaker 1: low thirty thousand's. And when we're talking about the arts
Speaker 1: and culture sector, you know, let's break that down a
Speaker 1: little bit. What types of jobs are included in that category.
Speaker 1: So the arts, entertainment recreation sector is kind of a
Speaker 1: big umbrellas the name suggests, so in compasses everybody from UM, desbians, musicians,
Speaker 1: but also people like aerobics instructors, bartenders, UM, it really
Speaker 1: covers a lot of different areas of the city. And actually,
Speaker 1: how to reader right into me just about half an
Speaker 1: hour ago, UM pointing out that these numbers maybe don't
Speaker 1: really reflect the degree of the impact UM in his
Speaker 1: particular sector. He works on Broadway, and he pointed out
Speaker 1: that Broadway has been closed down for almost a full
Speaker 1: year at this point. Right, it's a little bit different,
Speaker 1: UM than bartenders and aerobic instructors who have had kind
Speaker 1: of the opportunity to reopen and reintegrate, whereas a lot
Speaker 1: of people who were working in the acting community are
Speaker 1: still just shut out of a job broadly speaking, and
Speaker 1: you know, individual job losses certainly is one big element here.
Speaker 1: But but what about overall businesses operating in this space?
Speaker 1: Do we have any kind of data how many businesses
Speaker 1: within the arts and culture sector have permanently closed since
Speaker 1: the start of the pandemic. Yeah, we do, um So
Speaker 1: as of earlier this month, about um three out of
Speaker 1: every five arts and entertainment businesses have shut down in
Speaker 1: about sixty three of US sports and recreation venues. You know,
Speaker 1: we've heard that Governor Andrew Cuomo is trying to partially
Speaker 1: reopened businesses within the city, particularly within the arts and
Speaker 1: culture sector. You know, what has been thus far cleared
Speaker 1: for reopening and what kinds of restrictions remain in place.
Speaker 1: So the first thing um that comes to mind is
Speaker 1: New York has just reopened dining partially. February twelfth is
Speaker 1: when they allowed twenty five percent capacity back in restaurants.
Speaker 1: But I'm not sure that there's been any kind of
Speaker 1: movement as far as reopening music and entertainment that usage.
Speaker 1: It seems a little too early at this point. But
Speaker 1: there has been discussion about reopening movie theaters with limited capacity.
Speaker 1: That does obviously even with some very gradual steps towards reopening.
Speaker 1: That does leave many many venues and cultural institutions still closed.
Speaker 1: What kind of financial support is available for cultural businesses, um,
Speaker 1: those involved in the arts to draw on during this time. Yes,
Speaker 1: So there have been a lot of initiatives UM at
Speaker 1: the federal level, UM that we're already familiar with, like
Speaker 1: the Paycheck Protection Program UM. So the data says about
Speaker 1: three out of every five arts and entertainment companies in
Speaker 1: the city have already received alone through the p p
Speaker 1: P program. UM. Additionally, there's another federal relief package that's
Speaker 1: in the works UM that will provide fifteen billion dollars
Speaker 1: for these live venues. But that's spread across the entire nation.
Speaker 1: And I mean, in your opinion, you know, what are
Speaker 1: we looking at as far as a runway to bring
Speaker 1: the arts and culture sector back to pre pandemic levels
Speaker 1: in New York City. Yeah, So in terms of reopening,
Speaker 1: is going to kind of come down to how the
Speaker 1: vaccine rollout UM sort of shakes out here in the
Speaker 1: next few months. Uh. There have been issues and handcuffs
Speaker 1: that we've seen involving accessibility to the vaccine in the
Speaker 1: first few months including the ability to get follow up doses. Uh,
Speaker 1: there's kind of a question over where over whether the
Speaker 1: J and J vaccine um will clear up a lot
Speaker 1: of those supply side issues. We're gonna have to see, Uh,
Speaker 1: but it's going to be a matter of months yet
Speaker 1: before um things fully reopen um. God knows when exactly
Speaker 1: that will be. That with Spencer Norris, and that's it
Speaker 1: for our show today. For coverage of the outbreak from
Speaker 1: one bureaus of round the world, visit Bloomberg dot com
Speaker 1: slash coronavirus and if you like the show, please leave
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Speaker 1: global reporting. The Prognosis Daily edition is produced by Tophor
Speaker 1: foreheads Magnus Hendrickson and me Laura Carlson. Today's main story
Speaker 1: was reported by Spencer Norris. Original music by Leo Sidrin.
Speaker 1: Our editors are Rick Shine and Francesco Levi. Francesco Levi
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg's head of Podcasts. Thanks for listening.