Connect

Coping with COVID-19

Reminder for upcoming webinars hosted by EDD and Hollywood, Health & Society.

The California Employment Development Department (EDD) will present a live webinar about paid family leave and disability benefits for writers who are sick or quarantined due to COVID-19 on Tuesday, April 21 at 10 a.m. Other circumstances that may qualify writers for these programs will also be discussed.

According to the EDD, these programs provide partial wage replacement ranging from $50 to $1,300 per week funded through the CA State Disability Insurance (SDI) payroll deduction.

The webinar (created and presented by the EDD) will cover eligibility, how to apply for benefits, how much leave is offered, and approximately how much money an employee can receive during leave. This webinar will use Adobe Connect and attendance is limited to 50 participants. You will receive an email invitation before the event. RSVP here.

Continuing its partnership with the WGAW and WGAE, Hollywood, Health & Society will present the next in its series of panel discussions—hosted via Zoom—that explore issues related to the current COVID-19 pandemic.

The next virtual talk—Tuesday, April 21 at 5 p.m. (PT) / 8 p.m. (ET)—centers on the coronavirus and the drug hydroxychloroquine and how it affects people living with lupus, an autoimmune disease. The discussion is sponsored by the Lupus Foundation of America. Please RSVP here.

Speakers for the April 21 discussion:

  • Dr. Georgina Peacock, MD, MPH, FAAP—Director for the Division of Human Development and Disability (DHDD) at the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities; co-lead of the Community Intervention and At Risk Task Force for the CDC’s COVID-19 response
  • Dr. Karen Costenbader, MD, MPH—Chair of the Medical-Scientific Advisory Council for the Lupus Foundation of America, a multidisciplinary group of medical experts that addresses unmet needs in research and professional development efforts on lupus; director of the lupus program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston; professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School
  • Dr. Benjamin Abella, MD, MPhil—Professor of emergency medicine; attending physician in the department of emergency medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
  • Beau Willimon (co-moderator)—Award-winning creator and executive producer of The First (Hulu), House of Cards (Netflix); president, Writers Guild of America East
  • Michael Winship (co-moderator)—Emmy Award-winning senior writer for Moyers & Company and Bill Moyers Journal; Schumann Senior Writing Fellow, Common Dreams; immediate past president of WGAE

For a full list of COVID-19 resources for writers, visit the WGAW’s resource page.