3 Stories You Should Read 5-8-2020: Food insecurity, Viral mutations, Reopening and Unemployment Benefits
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In the category of: Follow the money
Governors Cut Off New Unemployment Benefits Before Some People Even Got Checks
The U.S. Labor Department has said that if someone’s employer wants them back, they can’t keep their benefits. There are a few exceptions, such as if a claimant has been diagnosed with the coronavirus or they have to watch their children because of school closures. But the department has specifically said workers can’t refuse employment just because they don’t want to contract COVID-19, the highly contagious and mysterious illness caused by the coronavirus.
Nevertheless, there may be some wiggle room on what counts as “suitable work” under the law, said Michele Evermore, a senior researcher and policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project.
In the category of: The only thing you can count on is change
Coronavirus: Mutating, but not necessarily more virulent
Understanding of virus is key to development of treatments and vaccine, and more testing will help in the process.
Viruses are classified either as DNA or RNA depending on their genetic material with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Ebola, Influenza and HIV all RNA viruses.
A recent study by the State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Disease at Zhejiang University in China indicated that the ability of the virus to mutate was stronger than expected and that this might have an impact on the deadliness of various strains.
“We still don’t know much about the association between mutations and virulence, transmissibility or mortality,” Li of BGI said, but added that he thought the Zhejiang University study would “help answer these concerns.”
In the category of: Up next
Food insecurity set to become the bigger pandemic
By end of 2020, the majority of the world’s 265 million “food insecure” people will live in middle-income countries, according to the latest WFP projections seen by Global Translations. The Food Security Information Network warns the number of “food insecure” people is at its highest level in decades. Middle-income countries like Argentina are now stuck choosing between feeding people and paying debt. While Argentina’s repeated policy choices over decades have led it back to unsustainable debt — now $323 billion debt against $12 billion in reserves — given the country’s strict lockdown, short of telling Argentinians to starve, the world will have to strike a deal. Finance Minister Martin Guzman said Argentina has already missed a $2.1 billion payment and is asking for a three-year suspension of debt payments.
In the U.S., it took weeks for the Department of Agriculture to buy $470 million of produce, dairy and seafood despite surging demand from food banks (Canada launched a similar program). Nearly one in five American mothers now report their children under 12 not getting enough food because they can’t afford it. The Los Angeles Times looks at the problem in California where much of America’s food is produced, and where by far its biggest homeless population lives.
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