True: The billionaires got $300-400 billion richer during the COVID-19 pandemic.

By: Nikita Kochhar
September 30 2020

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America’s billionaires saw their fortunes soar by $434 billion during the US lockdown between mid-March and mid-May, according to a new report by Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies’ Program for Inequality. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg had the biggest gains, with Bezos adding $34.6 billion to his wealth and Zuckerberg adding $25 billion. The report is based on Forbes data for America’s more than 600 billionaires between March 18 and May 19. Therefore, the claim is true.America’s billionaires saw their fortunes soar by $434 billion during the lockdown between mid-March and mid-May, according to report from Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies’ Program for Inequality. As per the report, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg had the biggest gains, with Bezos adding $34.6 billion to his wealth and Zuckerberg adding $25 billion. The report is based on Forbes data for America’s more than 600 billionaires between March 18 and May 19. According to the report, the net worth of America’s billionaires grew 15% during the two-month period, to $3.382 trillion from $2.948 trillion. The biggest gains were at the top of the billionaire pyramid, with the richest five billionaires -- Bezos, Bill Gates, Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett, and Larry Ellison -- seeing combined wealth gains of $76 billion. Therefore, the claim is true. The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a lot of potentially dangerous misinformation. For reliable advice on COVID-19 including symptoms, prevention and available treatment, please refer to the World Health Organisation or your national healthcare authority.