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