Nineteen Tragic Facts About the COVID-19 Economy - Bill
Quigley -  87
million 87 million workers will lose
federally mandated COVID-19 sick leave at the end of December unless
Congress acts to extend the law. 50
million 50 million people are now
facing hunger at least once a month, including one in four children.
The rate of adults who sometimes or often do not have enough to eat is
double in Black and Latino homes, according to the Associated Press.
30 million 30
million people are facing eviction as of December 31, 2020 when the
current Centers for Disease Control moratorium on evictions ends. There
has been a 70 per cent increase in the number of people paying their
rent by credit card. 16 million
16 million unemployed workers have already lost or
will lose their federal unemployment benefits by December 26, 2020. 4.4
million people have already exhausted their federal benefits and
another 12 million people stand to lose their unemployment benefits by
December 26, 2020 unless Congress passes new laws, according to the
Century Foundation. 12 million
As many as 12 million people who were entitled to
the $1,200 stimulus cheque never received it. 10
million Two major national law firms
and several national restaurant chains received $10 million dollars
each from the Paycheck Protection Program. More than 25 per cent of the
$500 billion in aid went to just one per cent of borrowers.
7 million 7 million more
Americans, about 11 per cent, now live in poverty, than did months ago
when the $600 Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program was
operating. (NBC News) 2.2 million
Since January, 2.2 million women have lost or quit
their jobs or are no longer looking for work because mothers have been
forced to choose between caring for their children and their jobs.
1.5 million Of the
record high 1.5 million homeless children in the U.S., over 400,000
have dropped off their school's radar during the pandemic. (Education
Week) 1.4 million One
million four hundred thousand children have tested positive for
COVID-19. (American Academy of Pediatrics) 110,000
One hundred and ten thousand restaurants have
closed permanently, according to the National Restaurant Association.
106,000 At least
106,000 nursing home residents and staff died from COVID-19 as of early
December, around 39 per cent of the overall deaths reported. (NBC News)
600 per cent Failure
rates in math and English jumped 600 per cent among low-income students
in some school districts recently in Maryland. Nationally grade school
students are falling significantly behind in math and the percentages
may even be worse because a large percentage of students were not even
present when testing was done. Several states report that many fewer
children enrolled back in school this fall than were there a year ago.
400 per cent COVID-19
rates are 400 per cent higher in state and federal prisons than among
the general public and the death rate is more than twice as high.
National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice.
400 per cent Black, Hispanic
and Native Americans are four times as likely to be hospitalized for
COVID-19 than whites. (CNN) 200 per cent
The risk of being exposed to COVID-19 at the
grocery store is twice as high in low-income neighborhoods as in
high-income neighborhoods. 37 per cent
African Americans are 37 per cent more likely to
die from COVID-19 than whites; Asians are 53 per cent more likely;
Hispanics 16 per cent. 31 per cent
There has been a 31 per cent increase in mental
health emergency room visits for children since the pandemic began and
an overall 24 per cent increase in emergency room visits for children.
(Centers for Disease Control) 16 per cent
College applications are down 16 per cent from
first generation students and lower-income students.
13 In 13 states, the
unemployment benefits provided fall below the federal poverty line of
$245 a week according to the Government Accountability Office.
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 49 - December 19, 2020
Article Link:
Nineteen Tragic Facts About the COVID-19 Economy - Bill
Quigley
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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