“Stay home!” they said. “If you want to open businesses you’re selfish and just want people to die!” they said.
Apparently, shutting the doors of businesses so that people can’t go to work and effing around with the global supply chain is not a great idea.
It would seem that conservatives were correct that this pandemic isn’t just a health threat to people, it’s also an economic threat.
The United Nations (yes, yes, I know) is warning that in short order we are going to add massive famine to the mix.
According to a U.N. report, the number of people that will be on the brink of starvation will double to pre-COVID levels. We’re looking at possibly 265 million people globally on the brink of starvation.
The world is facing multiple famines of “biblical proportions” in just a matter of months, the UN has said, warning that the coronavirus pandemic will push an additional 130 million people to the brink of starvation.
Famines could take hold in “about three dozen countries” in a worst-case scenario, the executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP) said in a stark address on Tuesday. Ten of those countries already have more than 1 million people on the verge of starvation, he said.
He cited conflict, an economic recession, a decline in aid and a collapse in oil prices as factors likely to lead to vast food shortages, and urged swift action to avert disaster.
“While dealing with a Covid-19 pandemic, we are also on the brink of a hunger pandemic,” David Beasley told the UN’s security council. “There is also a real danger that more people could potentially die from the economic impact of Covid-19 than from the virus itself.”
Source: CNN
In early April, Oxfam had warned about the sharp increase in global poverty as a result of the pandemic.
More than 30 countries in the developing world could experience widespread famine, and in 10 of those countries there are already more than 1 million people on the brink of starvation, said David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Programme.
“We are not talking about people going to bed hungry,” he told the Guardian in an interview. “We are talking about extreme conditions, emergency status – people literally marching to the brink of starvation. If we don’t get food to people, people will die.”
Covid-19 is likely to be sweeping through the developing world but its spread is hard to gauge. What appears to be certain is that the fragile healthcare systems of scores of developing countries will be unable to cope, and the economic disaster following in the wake of the pandemic will lead to huge strain on resources.
“This is truly more than just a pandemic – it is creating a hunger pandemic,” said Beasley. “This is a humanitarian and food catastrophe.”
Even before the pandemic began to spread, 2020 was going to be a difficult year for some countries struggling with food shortages. East Africa was hit with locust swarms that were the worst in decades, which had already put as many as 70 million people at risk.
None of those looming deaths from starvation are inevitable, said Beasley. “If we get money, and we keep the supply chains open, we can avoid famine,” he said. “We can stop this if we act now.”
He said the situation even four weeks from now was impossible to forecast, stressing that donors must act with urgency. He urged countries not to put in place export bans or other restrictions on the supply of food across borders, which would lead to shortages.
But Beasley also warned that staving off the threat of famine would take months, so assistance would be needed well beyond the initial response. “Our grave concern is that we could begin to put Covid-19 behind us [in developed countries] in three or four months, and then the money runs out,” he said. “And if the money runs out people will die.”
Source: The Guardian
One of the massive unforeseen consequences of shutting down the American economy is that the single most generous country in the world has been stifled. What will that mean for foreign aid?
If we’re having to pass massive relief bills just to keep our own citizens from poverty, how are we to help the rest of the world?
The entire global economy has been hit because of the incompetence of the Chinese communist government and the World Health Organization’s willingness to spread Chinese propaganda instead of preparing the world for a global pandemic.
All of these starvation deaths as a result of those thrown into poverty because of the coronavirus are all the fault of the Chi-Coms and the WHO.
Don’t let them forget it.
Meanwhile, Americans need to get back to work while taking precautions to protect the most vulnerable. When Americans can get back to their jobs and provide for their own families, they’ll also be willing to give, and that’s precisely what needs to happen. It’s not just government funding, but individual giving that makes the difference.
Here at ClashDaily we drew your attention to a charity that is doing the work feeding the poor both physically and spiritually–Hope Partners International. If you can, check out this article and consider giving a donation.
