Couple of thoughts:

1. Although I agree it’s a problem, this isn’t new news I don’t believe. I don’t have good references to point to right this second, but I swear I hear almost monthly if not more often that most people couldn’t come up with $500-1k in an emergency, much less multiple months of expenses.

2. The article points to COVID-19 exacerbating these findings, but on top of the cash every US tax payer received who made under the defined threshold, there were a ton of things put in place or implemented like aid, loan forbearance plans, rent extensions etc. as apart of COVID-19. It seems a little (but I guess not totally) surprising that this crisis is what brought to light this issue.