Amazon reports that, so far, about 20,000 employees have tested positive or been presumed positive for COVID-19. Amazon has about 1.4 million employees (including those who work at Whole Foods), so those numbers represent an infection rate of 1.4 percent. Amazon considers that a good result, but you’ll find no shortage of news headlines about Amazon warehouse safety violations or demands that the company be more transparent about COVID-19 infections. Unfortunately, Amazon’s press release doesn’t indicate if the infection rate is improving or growing worse. It’s also hard to assess the company’s success when so few employers release any data at all about infections. Amazon warehouse workers have responded by trying to collect their own data. Meanwhile, injuries at Amazon fulfillment centers have grown by 33 percent over the last four years.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
