Contracting COVID-19 is putting already financially stressed Americans on the brink of economic disaster. And the rest of the country isnt that far behind.

Of the Americans whove contracted COVID-19, 63% are facing serious financial problems, according to a surve y released Wednesday morning from NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Harvard Universitys T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Those who havent gotten sick arent faring much better: 46% of households in the U.S. reported serious financial problems because of the pandemic in the survey, 31% have used up all their savings and 21% are having trouble paying debt.

The high percentages of financial distress shocked researchers, said Robert J. Blendon, an emeritus professor of health policy and policy analysis at Harvard who worked on the survey.

We were completely surprised, said Blendon, who has done other polling around natural disasters.

For this survey, researchers asked if Americans had serious financial Issues as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Typically in the event of a hurricane or flood, government aid is there to provide a cushion for those in distress, which limits the number of people who report serious issues. Blendon and his fellow researchers assumed that the stimulus checks and expanded aid provided in the economic stimulus package, called the CARES Act, would cushion the blow of the pandemic. They expected to find what they normally see after a disaster: a small subset of people for whom that cushion wasnt enough.

Instead they found widespread, serious financial distress particularly among Americans earning less than $100,000 a year, people of color, those with disabilities and those whove contracted the coronavirus. The numbers are jaw-dropping for nonwhite Americans: 72% of Latino households reported serious financial problems; so did 60% of Black households and slightly more than half of Native Americans.

Desirae Hernandez, a 39-year-old home health care worker, said she did everything she could to keep from getting sick while she worked through the pandemic, but she wound up contracting the virus from a client. She was out of work for four weeks, with only six hours of sick leave.

Everyone in her home in Kennewick, Washington, got sick, too. Her husband, who was already working less because of the coronavirus shutdowns, was out of work for weeks with COVID-19. Hernandezs 9-year-old son contracted the virus, as did her mother-in-law. Hernandezs brother- and sister-in-law were both hospitalized.

It was all around a scary situation, she said. Financially, Im still catching up.

They paid only the bills they had to pay and went to the food bank. Her cellphone was shut off. So was the Internet at home. She paid a neighbor $20 to borrow WiFi so her young son could attend online school. Luckily, Hernandez has insurance through the health care arm of the Service Employees International Union.

Now everyone is feeling better, but the financial pain lingers. Hernandez says she has $3.94 in her checking account.

At least its not in the red, she said with a laugh.