Old-Age Poverty

The eThekwini municipality has long ignored the homeless in Durban. Now the coronavirus lockdown has forced it to acknowledge their existence and rope in help to meet their needs. "The city used to ask us not to feed the homeless, now they are begging us to ," a charity worker…

The downtown homeless center has been closed for the duration of the pandemic. A shelter has been temporarily set up three miles away.And so the wretched wander the business district, pitching camp on the sidewalks, warming their suppers and sandwiches on the sewer caps that billow with steam.Cutting through the…

The first case of COVID-19, now a global pandemic present in 199 countries, was reported in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. Africa's first confirmed case was in Egypt on 15 February. The first sub-Saharan case was reported in Nigeria on 28 February. Information to date confirms that older people are…

On November 28th, 2019, the European Union officially and solemnly declared the “climate emergency,” in a ceremony presided over by the would-be 17-year-old prophet Greta Thunberg. Today, almost four months later, in the midst of a real emergency, the only thing that remains official and solemn in that declaration is…

COVID-19 will cause a lot of deaths if we don’t curb the spread of infection successfully by lockdowns and other recently announced measures. The pandemic is anticipated to disproportionately impact older people in the “baby boomer” generation – those aged between 55 and 74. In terms of fatalities, individuals over…

Editor’s note: The Economist is making some of its most important coverage of the covid-19 pandemic freely available to readers of The Economist Today, our daily newsletter. To receive it, register here. For more coverage, see our coronavirus hub“IN THE TOWNSHIP people are not worried at all,” says Lesedi Kgasago,…

Skip to comments. Only Social Darwinians Worry About the Harm Caused by COVID-19 Lockdowns, Andrew Cuomo Says. The point of shutting down the "nonessential" economy, New York's governor explains, is to "save lives, period, whatever it costs." Reason ^ | March 24, 2020 | Jacob Sullum Posted on 03/25/2020 6:53:52…

A busker sings a song on a street underneath an elevated train station in Bangkok. Ageing buskers are among those at the lowest rung of society who do not receive social welfare protection from the state. (POST TODAY photo) For people in their 80s, night time is for sleeping. Not for…

However high the death rate of the COVID-19 coronavirus becomes, the governmental response to the threat will be even more dangerous. If the current blockade of economic life continues, more people will die from the countermeasures than from the virus itself. In a short time, the basic supply of everyday goods will…

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty ImagesA cyclist wearing a mask crossing the Williamsburg Bridge, New York City, March 18, 2020This running series of brief dispatches by New York Review writers will document the coronavirus outbreak with regular updates from around the world. —The Editors Anastasia Edel 🔊 • Eduardo Halfon 🔊 • Tim…