Sen. Kamala Harris is one of the most prominent Black politicians in the country.
During a recent interview with PEOPLE, Harris opened up about how the spread of COVID-19 has impacted the American people.
“We’re in the midst of a pandemic and people are afraid,” she says. “People are concerned about the health and well-being of their family members and themselves and adjusting to a new way of life, including working from home, including home-schooling, including social distancing and what that means,” she told the publication.
Harris, a former presidential candidate, dropped out of the race in December but is reportedly a frontrunner for VP — though nothing has been made official yet.
“Most of those workers do not have unemployment insurance, they don’t have paid sick leave, they don’t have paid family leave,” says Harris. “So the Domestic Workers Alliance has created what they have named the Coronavirus Care Fund so that people can donate so that these workers who are doing such important work, so they have a fund that they can rely on to help them get through the hardship of these moments. It’s real kindness.”
On Wednesday morning, the White House and the Senate reached a $2-trillion stimulus deal, which could help to ease the fallout of the virus spread. States across the country are struggling to cope with the influx of coronavirus patients.
According to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University, cases confirmed in the U.S. have exceeded 55,000, with at least 802 deaths recorded.
Harris feels that the White House was too slow to act in their efforts to suppress the virus spread.
“Working in Washington, D.C., we have to get through this,” Harris continued. “But it is absolutely outrageous that we were so slow and frankly that the administration was so slow to recognize the seriousness of the moment and act swiftly and quickly and with a sense of urgency.”
