AS Britain reels from Covid-19, another pandemic has also gripped the country – starvation.

Freedom of Information requests have forced 50 hospital trusts to admit that 11,515 “malnourished” or starving children have been hospitalised since 2015.

The past six months alone has seen 2,483 hospital admissions for children aged under 16, equivalent to 103 a week.

That number is certain to rise along with unemployment, homelessness, and benefit claimants as an economic slump not seen since the 1930s grips the capitalist world.

The United Nations has found a similar upward curve of starvation prior to Covid-19. Almost 690 million were classed as starving in 2019, up by 10 million on 2018, and an increase of 60 million in the past five years.

The only solution to starving children and adults all over the world is a Socialist transformation of society to place the world’s productive forces under the control of the people so that need replaces greed as the motive force of the world’s economy.

Capitalism produces starvation in the same way as it produces unemployment, homelessness, poverty, crime, and drug and alcohol abuse.

The inability of capitalist regimes like Britain and the USA to decisively tackle Covid-19 and save lives is rooted in a system that is scarred by class divisions, rampant poverty, and private ownership of essential resources needed by all.

James Roberts, Wallasey