Pandemic has worsened poverty, vulnerability says CENSIS

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 3 - The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated poverty and increased vulnerability in Italy, think tank CENSIS said in its 55th annual report on Friday.
    In 2020, it said, some two million Italian families were in absolute poverty, a rise of 104.8% on 2010 when there were 980,000.
    The rise in poverty was sharper in the north, +131.4%, than in the centre (67.6%) and south (+93.8%), CENSIS said.
    "The virus has also accentuated a sense of vulnerability," the think tank added.
    Some 40.3% of Italian feel insecure while students suffer increasing levels of depression, anxiety, and existential angst.
    "Irrationality is also spreading like wildfire," CENSIS went on, stressing that 5.9% of Italians, or around three million people, think that COVID does not exist, while 10.9% think that vaccines are useless.
    Some 5.8% of the population think that the world is flat.
    "Society needs a concrete and robust project in order to recover from all this," said the think tank. (ANSA).