By Jason DeParle

Read the full article from The New York Times, here.

The number of poor Americans is expected to fall by nearly 20 million from 2018 levels, a decline of almost 45 percent. The country has never cut poverty so much in such a short period of time, and the development is especially notable since it defies economic headwinds — the economy has nearly seven million fewer jobs than it did before the pandemic.

The extraordinary reduction in poverty has come at extraordinary cost, with annual spending on major programs projected to rise fourfold to more than $1 trillion. Yet without further expensive new measures, millions of families may find the escape from poverty brief. The three programs that cut poverty most — stimulus checks, increased food stamps and expanded unemployment insurance — have ended or are scheduled to soon revert to their prepandemic size.

By Phil McCausland

Read the full article from NBC News, here.

Advocates and experts have particularly celebrated the 15 percent increase in maximum funding for people receiving the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefit, or SNAP, commonly called food stamps. Once fearful that conservatives and the Trump administration would add work requirements to the benefit, they now warn that the padded benefit is scheduled to expire at the end of September and are pushing to make it permanent.

Many consider SNAP to be the backbone of the fight to address hunger in the U.S. but complain about the formula that calculates the amount of money hungry Americans get, especially with rising food costs and needs.

Without the expansion, the national average of the SNAP benefit per meal came to $1.97, even though the average meal cost was around $2.41, according to an analysis released this week by the Urban Institute, an economic and social policy think tank. SNAP’s maximum benefit last year without the expansion passed by Congress came up short of low-income meal costs in 96 percent of U.S. counties.

By Peter Sullivan

Read the full article from The Hill, here.

Pfizer made waves earlier this month when it said it would be applying for Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorization for a third dose of its vaccine.

Still, it is not fully clear yet when and if a booster dose will be needed. It is possible booster shots will only be needed for more vulnerable people like the elderly or those with compromised immune systems.

By Neil Irwin

Read the full article from The New York Times, here.

But while there is no reason to expect a repeat of the huge disruption of 2020, the new variant puts at risk the kind of rapid recovery that has been underway for months. Just as major parts of the economy were figuring out how to return to full functioning, this may amount to throwing sand in the gears.

By Ethan Hauser and Jesus Jiménez

Read the full article from New York Times, here.

On Monday, U.S. officials matched the growing concern with steps aimed at controlling travel to and from the United States to stem the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.

The Biden administration said it would continue to restrict the entry of Europeans and others into the country, citing concerns that infected travelers could contribute to Delta’s spread. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged Americans to avoid traveling to Spain and Portugal, saying that as cases rise in both countries, “even fully vaccinated travelers may be at risk for getting and spreading Covid-19 variants.”