Eight million more Americans have been plunged into poverty since May as federal aid to help people through the coronavirus pandemic has largely dried up, according to researchers at Columbia University. The Columbia researchers found that, after falling by four million at the beginning of the pandemic thanks to a $2 trillion emergency stimulus package, the number of people in poverty is now higher than before coronavirus crisis. A separate study, from the Universities of Chicago and Notre Dame, which used a different definition of poverty, found that the number of poor Americans has grown by six million people in the past three months. That study found that circumstances have got worse mostly for Black people and children. Bruce Meyer, an author of the Chicago study, told The New York Times the “very concerning” numbers show “a lot more trouble paying their bills, paying their rent, putting food on the table.”