Hunger in the time of Covid

[bobabode]

'The pandemic pushes hundreds of millions of people toward starvation and poverty' WP

"Financiers and traders on Wall Street may be starting to feel optimistic, but for most people the gloom is only deepening. In the United States, thousands of people continue to die of covid-19 each week, while some 30 million people remain unemployed. Industrial output and consumer spending are still well below pre-pandemic levels, with experts pointing to evidence of spiraling inequality as winter approaches. In Europe, a second surge of infections has triggered warnings and shutdowns, compounding the continent’s economic jitters.

Yet the worst pain is centered in the developing world. In recent weeks, a host of international organizations and agencies have sounded alarms over crises provoked by the novel coronavirus. While many Western governments managed to hold the line through stimulus programs, poorer nations are floundering amid massive public debt and shortfalls in state revenue. All the while, the roughly 2 billion people who eke out a living in the world’s informal economies face varying degrees of deprivation.

David Beasley, the executive director of the U.N.’s World Food Program, warned during a Sept. 18 briefing that a “wave of hunger and famine still threatens to sweep across the globe.” He said his organization needed close to $5 billion to prevent 30 million people from dying of starvation. According to the agency, some 135 million people around the world faced acute food insecurity before the pandemic, and that number is expected to double this year.

The World Bank says the pandemic may undermine international efforts to bring down the global extreme poverty rate to 3 percent by 2030 — and projects that existing poverty levels will grow this year for the first time since the 1990s. Some 160 million people in Asia alone may be forced below the poverty line, according to the Asian Development Bank. In Latin America, that figure is around 45 million people, according to a recent U.N. study."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...y/?arc404=true

Meanwhile here in the states, skinflint Moscow Mitch and his cronies are single-mindedly intent on screwing the courts instead of taking care of the country's citizens. Foodbanks are experiencing unseen levels of need with 30 million out of work due to the Trumpian Plague. Fat assed 'Deadbeat' Don is completely AWOL. smh