Washington Post: Nearly 8 million Americans have fallen into poverty since the summer. “The U.S. poverty rate has surged over the past five months, with 7.8 million Americans falling into poverty, the latest indication of how deeply many are struggling after government aid dwindled. The poverty rate jumped to 11.7 percent in November, up 2.4 […]
ABC News: The wealth of billionaires hit a new record high of $10.2 trillion as pandemic raged. “The wealth of the world’s billionaires soared to a record new high of $10.2 trillion at the end of July as the coronavirus pandemic raged, according to a new report published Wednesday from Swiss bank UBS and the […]
New Statesman: Data analysis: How the poorest countries are losing out on Covid-19 relief funds. “New Statesman analysis suggests some countries with a higher GDP per capita have been allocated more international funding to fight the virus than poorer nations.”
The Atlantic: Normalcy for Some, Apocalypse for Others. “The pandemic recession has erased trillions of dollars of economic activity and pushed the jobless rate to 8.4 percent, with one in 10 Americans currently drawing unemployment-insurance payments. But it has not been evenly distributed. Big companies and rich families have largely recovered, whereas mom-and-pops and the […]
Futurity: Utility Shut-offs, Evictions More Likely For Households Of Color. “Researchers from the Indiana University O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs surveyed more than 1,800 Americans at or below 200% of the federal poverty line. The survey, which professors Sanya Carley and David Konisky conducted, is the second wave of the ‘Survey of Household […]
ProPublica: The Students Left Behind by Remote Learning. “I have chosen to tell the story of Shemar’s remote-learning difficulties, with his family’s permission, because it was his plight that alerted me to the fact that remote learning was proving disastrous. As the spring went on, I grew increasingly distressed by the lack of public alarm […]
HuffPost: Getting COVID-19 Is Putting Americans On The Brink Of Economic Crisis. “Contracting COVID-19 is putting already financially stressed Americans on the brink of economic disaster. And the rest of the country isn’t that far behind. Of the Americans who’ve contracted COVID-19, 63% are facing serious financial problems, according to a survey released Wednesday morning […]
TheCity NYC: WiFi Sign of the Times as New Yorkers Gather Outside Libraries for Free Internet. “One New Yorker uses the free WiFi in front of libraries to research music. Another watches movies on Netflix as she charges her computer, while a man videochats with a friend on his laptop. Across the city, people without […]
NBC News: For richer and poorer, Uncle Sam’s coronavirus response widened the gulf. “The government’s treatment of two businessmen — one Black, one white; one struggling, one thriving; one left to fend for himself, one supported despite no apparent need — reflects the much larger story of the federal response to the coronavirus crisis. It […]
Phys .org: Social distancing varies by income in US. “Wealthier communities went from being the most mobile before the COVID-19 pandemic to the least mobile, while poorer areas have gone from the least mobile to the most mobile, according to a study by the University of California, Davis.”
BBC: India coronavirus: ‘More than half of Mumbai slum-dwellers had Covid-19’. “More than half the residents of slums in three areas in India’s commercial capital, Mumbai, tested positive for antibodies to the coronavirus, a new survey has found. Only 16% of people living outside slums in the same areas were found to be exposed to […]
Vice: The Eviction Crisis Is Already Here and It’s Crushing Black Moms. “Amid widespread job loss, reduced hours, and pay cuts, more than 12.5 million renters, like [Lacresha] Lewis, were unable to make their most recent payment, according to survey data collected last week and released by the U.S. Census Bureau Wednesday. And nearly 24 […]
San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area parents rush to form ‘pandemic pods’ for the school year. The backlash is fierce. “In the past week alone, tens of thousands of families in the Bay Area and across the country have found each other on Facebook, created contact lists organized by city or school, and formed ‘pandemic pods’ […]
NBC News: Coronavirus surge brings suffering to the impoverished, underresourced Mississippi Delta. “Chad and Kelsey Dowell, both doctors in this small, impoverished town in the Mississippi Delta, have cried a lot in recent weeks. The reason is the same every time: the coronavirus. … Their emotions are stretched thin by the flood of patients they […]