In addition to the over 240,000 Americans who have died from covid-19, the coronavirus pandemic has caused 8 million to fall into poverty, according to a recent study.
Researchers at Columbia University found the striking numbers when analyzing data from February to September 2020. Published Oct. 15, the study says the issue is magnified for marginalized communities.
“The monthly poverty rate increased from 15% to 16.7% from February to September 2020, even after taking the CARES Act’s income transfers into account. Increases in monthly poverty rates have been particularly acute for Black and Hispanic individuals, as well as for children,” the study says.
While the CARES Act did help prevent the number from being greater in the beginning months of the pandemic with no additional relief in sight, poverty is still on the rise and may get worse.
“In April and May, the CARES Act was successful in offsetting potential increases in monthly poverty, but was not successful at preventing a rise in deep poverty, defined as having monthly income lower than half the monthly poverty threshold,” the study continues.
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Rev. Dr. William Barber is the co-chair of The Poor People’s Campaign. He decried the narrative that poverty is being exacerbated by the virus, saying Black and Hispanic people were already poor during an interview on AM Joy.
“We already had 140 million people in poverty, 250,000 dying a year before because of covid. Now we’re saying 8 million more people have fallen into poverty since May … They were already poor. They’re not falling into poverty, they’re getting poorer,” Barber said.
Columbia is not the only university to find such staggering results. Researchers at the University of Chicago and the University of Notre Dame also found millions of Americans were entering poverty during the pandemic, NBC News reported.
