European Study: 8% Europeans Can´t Afford to Buy Food anymore, 16% Expect This to Happen in the Future

An online survey conducted by Kantar for Vodafone Institute of over 15,000 citizens from across 15 European countries including Romania shows shocking results: 8% of the surveyed Europeans claim that they can´t afford to buy food anymore, while 16% expect this to happen in the future.

Other conclusions of the study are at least concerning:

• Two out of three Europeans agree that the pandemic will affect their lives in the short term (65%), and almost as many see effects in the long run (61%). Those living in Portugal (78%), Greece (77%) and Spain (75%) consistently remain the most concerned about long-term quality of life impact brought about by the pandemic. Germans (44%) and Estonians (45%) are the least concerned in this regard.

• The same tendency can be observed regarding the short-term impact; for example, 82% of the Greeks and 80% of the Portuguese state that the COVID-19 crisis will limit their quality of life in the short term – only 49% of the Germans and 50% of the Dutch share these concerns.

• The personal economic situation of Europeans has also worsened, compared to results in May 2020. This includes loss of savings (18%, May: 14%) or danger of bankruptcy (6%, May: 4%). In every country, except Sweden, more people lost their savings compared to May. In Poland, Spain and Greece a plus of 9% state that they have already been affected by the loss of their savings.

These are just some of the consequences of the pandemic. Other sort of consequences are the ones that a Romanian study revealed in plain pandemic: 42% Romanians suffer from mental disturbances because of COVID-19 pandemic.

Some of the conclusions of this kind of studies might seem shocking, but more and more similar studies show the planet is going to get better from Covid-19, but it’s certainly getting sicker with other problems. Some of them, as the economic ones, will affect countries, companies and individuals alike, while others, such as the psychological ones, will affect the individuals on a long term.

Are we getting better along with the vaccination campaign? Think twice about it and you might find out the world is not getting better at all and the affects of this pandemic are more serious than a vaccine could cure.