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Page added on July 12, 2020
The hunger crisis linked to coronavirus could kill more people than the disease itself
The coronavirus pandemic has already claimed over half a million lives across the world, with case numbers continuing to rise. A new report by Oxfam now warns that the hunger crisis worsened by the pandemic could potentially kill more people each day than the infection itself.
An estimated 12,000 people per day could die from hunger linked to Covid-19 by the end of the year, Oxfam said. By comparison, data by Johns Hopkins University shows that the pandemic’s deadliest day so far was April 17, when 8,890 deaths were recorded.
“The pandemic is the final straw for millions of people already struggling with the impacts of conflict, climate change, inequality and a broken food system that has impoverished millions of food producers and workers,” Oxfam’s Interim Executive Director Chema Vera said in a release.
Among the issues that have left many unable to put food on the table are lost income caused by unemployment or a reduction in remittance payments, the lack of social support for those who work in the informal economy, and disruptions to the supply chain and hurdles faced by producers.
Also contributing to the crisis are the travel restrictions related to lockdowns, which impact not just workers and farmers, but also the delivery of humanitarian aid.
These new challenges add themselves to long-standing issues worsening global hunger, including wars, climate change and rising inequality.
In its briefing, Oxfam calls out food and beverage industry titans like Coca-Cola, Unilever, General Mills among others.
“Meanwhile, those at the top are continuing to make a profit: eight of the biggest food and drink companies paid out over $18 billion to shareholders since January even as the pandemic was spreading across the globe ― ten times more than the UN says is needed to stop people going hungry,” the release reads.
Covid-19 exacerbating food shortages
According to Oxfam, the coronavirus pandemic “has added fuel to the fire of an already growing hunger crisis.”
World Food Programme data cited by Oxfam estimates that in 2019, 821 million people were food insecure and 149 million of them suffered “crisis-level hunger or worse.” Current projections say the number of people experiencing crisis-level hunger might reach 270 million in 2020 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, an increase of over 80% from the previous year.
Oxfam’s briefing singles out 10 extreme hunger hotspots around the world where the pandemic is worsening already critical situations. They are: Yemen, Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Venezuela, the West African Sahel, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, and Haiti.
But the negative effects of the pandemic on food security are also felt in middle-income countries such as Brazil, India and South Africa, where “people that were just about managing have been tipped over the edge by the pandemic,” according to Oxfam.
Brazil and India are now dealing with the second-largest and third-largest coronavirus outbreaks in the world, dwarfed only by that of the United States. Cases in Brazil have surpassed 1.7 million, and India has over 767,000. The United States broke the threshold of 3 million cases on Wednesday.
Food insecurity in the US and the pandemic
Hunger is rising globally, and the United States is no exception.
Over the last week, 1.3 million people filed initial claims for unemployment benefits, and according to Feeding America, an additional 17 million people in the United States could be food insecure in 2020 as a result of the pandemic. That would bring the total number of Americans struggling to put food on the table to around 54 million people, or one in six, the organization estimates.
“This is a 46% increase over the 37 million people who were food insecure prior to the COVID-19 crisis,” based on data from 2018, said Emily Engelhard, a managing director at Feeding America.
Many more Americans are taking advantage of food banks across the country to get by, the organization says.
Based on preliminary data from Feeding America’s latest food bank survey, 83% of the organization’s food banks reported seeing an increase in the number of people served compared to this time last year, with an average increase of 50%, Engelhard explained.
The pandemic also exposed vulnerabilities in the US food supply chains. For example, Covid-19 outbreaks severely affected meat processing plants around the country, causing shortages.
“We need a more diversified supply chain system in which you have many more actors” to avoid these types of issues, Miguel Gómez, an associate professor at Cornell’s School of Applied Economics, told CNN.
“There has to be a balance between having regional players and more global players. You don’t want to depend on only one supply chain to feed a population, because that is risky,” Gómez, an expert in supply chain sustainability, explained.
Avoiding the worst case scenario
Gómez said he was not surprised by Oxfam’s grim predictions, although he is optimistic that the worst case scenario they are anticipating can be avoided.
“It is clear that our food distribution system has huge inequalities,” Gómez said. “A long term concern is how can we shift emphasis from just focusing on efficiencies and maximizing profits to a more resilient, fair food production and distribution system,” he added.
Gómez believes that the solutions lie in global policy actions, like investing in food assistance programs, building or strengthening food safety networks, and supporting farmers as they see their revenues reduced.
More forceful government intervention to purchase and redistribute food, and measures to keep retail prices for basic needs from rising “at least in the short term” would also be impactful, Gómez argued.
“We should not forget about the importance of public policy or government in ensuring the availability of products at fair prices,” said Gómez.
Oxfam’s recommendations on how to solve the crisis at hand also point to the importance of governance and leadership at the global level.
“Governments can save lives now by fully funding the UN’s COVID-19 appeal, making sure aid gets to those who need it most, and cancelling the debts of developing countries to free up funding for social protection and healthcare,” Oxfam’s Interim Executive Director Chema Vera is quoted as saying.
“To end this hunger crisis, governments must also build fairer, more robust, and more sustainable food systems, that put the interests of food producers and workers before the profits of big food and agribusiness,” Vera added.
14 Comments on "The hunger crisis linked to coronavirus could kill more people than the disease itself"
Gordon Ramsay on Sun, 12th Jul 2020 11:13 am
I think the future will be mostly sprouts. Just roasted or boiled sprouts all day long.
Sure they will keep you alive but they’ll fucking taste like shit.
Richard Guenette on Sun, 12th Jul 2020 1:44 pm
CNN, like FoxNews, only tells viewers what to think, see and hear.
Richard Guenette on Sun, 12th Jul 2020 1:54 pm
I like CNN and Foz news becuase I like to be told my news not think about it.
makati1 on Sun, 12th Jul 2020 6:45 pm
“CNN, like FoxNews, only tells viewers what to think, see and hear.”
True Richard. No real truth or facts come out of the USMSM. Lies and hypocrisy is their motto.
Fact: here in the Philippines, we have had about 1,400 covid-19 deaths to date.
Causes of death in the Philippines:
Heart diseases – 220,000 per year
Respiratory(lung), all types – 110,000 per year
Cancers – 65,000 per year.
Diabetes – 30,000 per year.
Flus of all kinds – 126,000 deaths per year.
This flu is a drop in the bucket of deaths everywhere. It is all hype and a power grab by the One World people. Wear your face diaper and bow to your masters, fools!
JuanP on Sun, 12th Jul 2020 6:59 pm
“CNN, like FoxNews, only tells viewers what to think, see and hear.”
True Richard. No real truth or facts come out of the USMSM. Lies and hypocrisy is their motto.
Fact: here in the Philippines, we have had about 1,400 covid-19 deaths to date.
Causes of death in the Philippines:
Heart diseases – 220,000 per year
Respiratory(lung), all types – 110,000 per year
Cancers – 65,000 per year.
Diabetes – 30,000 per year.
Flus of all kinds – 126,000 deaths per year.
This flu is a drop in the bucket of deaths everywhere. It is all hype and a power grab by the One World people. Wear your face diaper and bow to your masters, fools!
makati1 on Sun, 12th Jul 2020 7:15 pm
BTW: Causes of death in the US:
Heart disease – 660,000 per year
Cancers – 580,000 per year
Flu and pneumonia – 200,000 per year
ACCIDENTS – 110,000 per year
Suicide – 40,000 per year.
A total of about 3,500,000 Amerikans die very year of something. Murders are a big thing and suicides, of course. Both will increase as the US dies, as will the deaths from disease.
makati1 on Sun, 12th Jul 2020 7:18 pm
Outcast_Searcher, still pretending eh.
You’re a classic example of a downunder convict spawn whose been bottle fed Rupert Murdoch kool-aid your entire life.
You are so desperate to rationalize decline–>collapse, run away climate change consequences & the rest of the ever growing overshoot consequences, I almost feel sorry for you. What a sad little man you are. Trying to quell your dissonance is obviously very painful for you. Rest assured, it’ll all continue to get worse.
When the empire breaks, they will abandon your country without hesitation & then y’all will really be China’s bitch. Gloves & condoms off, no more reach arounds & whispering sweet nothings in you ear. You’ll be China’s #1 fuck toy & cum bucket.
Bend over round-eye, me luv you long time.
FamousDrScanlon on Sun, 12th Jul 2020 10:07 pm
Mak, 987543 people stubbed their toe last year, therefore covid doesn’t count.
Mak, KFC slaughtered 1980000 chickens last year, therefore covid doesn’t count.
False equivalence
“False equivalence is a logical fallacy in which an equivalence is drawn between two subjects based on flawed or false reasoning. This fallacy is categorized as a fallacy of inconsistency.[1] A colloquial expression of false equivalency is “comparing apples and oranges”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_equivalence
It’s just like the seasonal flu bro………………even though it’s the middle of summer & it hasn’t peaked yet.
FamousDrScanlon on Sun, 12th Jul 2020 10:18 pm
And today’s Darwin award goes to…..
‘I thought this was a hoax’: Patient, 30, dies after attending ‘COVID party,’ doctor says
“We cared for a 30-year-old patient at Methodist Hospital who told their nurse that they had attended a ‘COVID party.’ … Just before the patient died, they looked at their nurse and said ‘I think I made a mistake. I thought this was a hoax, but it’s not,’..”
“Appleby said the parties are held by those skeptical of the virus and include someone who has previously tested positive. Attendees go to see “if the virus is real and if anyone gets infected.”
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/07/11/texas-patient-30-dies-after-attending-covid-party-doctor-says/5422175002/
Any Covidiots around here wanting to host an infection party let me know – I’ll buy the beer 5 24’s of Corona. You have to live stream the party to make the ‘dead pool’ more fun. I got a $20 that says the climate denier on the patio will be the first to be hospitalized.
FamousDrScanlon on Sun, 12th Jul 2020 10:20 pm
It gets better by the hour.
Wisconsin Rep. Grothman Coughs Uncontrollably at Mask-Optional GOP Event
https://www.newsweek.com/wisconsin-grothman-coughing-1517226
FamousDrScanlon on Sun, 12th Jul 2020 11:03 pm
Your Mask Cuts Own Risk by 65 Percent
https://www.ucdavis.edu/coronavirus/news/your-mask-cuts-own-risk-65-percent/
makati1 on Mon, 13th Jul 2020 4:16 am
Famous, you are full of goat shit. You are a diaper wearing idiot, obviously. That psychotic, delusional comment is irrelevant. Buy some knee pads so when you bow to your masters 100 times a day, you knees will be protected. LOL
Amerika is going down, down, down. Meanwhile, China is moving on and growing again. Prove me wrong with real facts not immature putdowns.
Abraham van Helsing on Mon, 13th Jul 2020 4:33 am
Europe +1
China +1
Empire -1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piIS4MZtSSM
“Europe Arise – Sir Oswald Mosley”
RPG on Fri, 17th Jul 2020 3:54 pm
Proud 2B white.