COKE’S PROFITS SPARKLE: GOOD AND BAD

Coca-Cola’s organic revenue in this year’s second quarter was 37 percent more than the same period last year, also rising above 2019’s revenues for that quarter, and profits grew 49 percent year-on-year to $2.6 billion, the company reported.
Sales volume increased 17 percent in North America, 12 percent in Latin America, 16 percent in Asia, and 21 percent in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, measured by the number of eight-ounce drinks sold in 24-serving cases.
The boost came as more areas reopened bars, restaurants, sports stadiums, concert venues, and other public gathering places.
As a result, Coke predicts revenue will gain 12 to 14 percent this year and earnings per share will climb 13 to 15 percent, up from the company’s earlier revenue forecast of 9 to 11 percent.
Pepsico, Coke’s chief rival, also brightened its 2021 outlook, based on better-than-expected second-quarter sales (“Pepsico Raises 2021 Earnings Forecast Amid Rising Sales,” Trends Journal, 20 July, 2021).
Coke’s optimistic projection could change if the COVID virus’s rampaging delta variant prods politicians to impose lockdowns once again, CEO James Quincey said in comments quoted by The Wall Street Journal.
“We remain very clear-eyed about the potential” of future market disruptions, “but overall we see a clearer path” back to business as normal, he said.
TRENDPOST: That was last week. As the COVID War 2.0 is ramped up and more mandates are being imposed, business will not come back to normal. 
We note this article, however, to illustrate the health decline of civilization and how, since the COVID War was launched in the winter of 2020, not a peep from politicians, so-called health officials and Presstitutes about building one’s immune system and eating healthy. 
Indeed, cola sales accurately depict the state-of-the-nation.
For example, to illustrate how low the U.S. education system has sunk, despite the clear, documented health risks of regular soda drinking, it is estimated 80 percent of public schools in America have a contract with Coke or Pepsi for “pouring rights,” including in-school vending machines.
As reported in the nutrition newsletter HealthLine last January:
“Consider the ingredients in that 20-ounce bottle of cola: Carbonated water, natural and artificial flavors, a little caffeine, and about 17 teaspoons of sugar, which together add up to 250 calories. All of those empty calories put schools in a dilemma: They may not have wanted to give their students a sugar fix, but they didn’t want to walk away from piles of cash either.”
TRENDPOST: While Americans are masked up and socially distanced in fear, afraid of dying from COVID, they self-destruct, killing themselves by eating crap and blowing up.
On 18 August 2018, the Secretaries of Agriculture wrote in The Hill, “Diet-related disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, surpassing tobacco, drug, and alcohol usage. More than 1,000 deaths every day are due to poor diets.”
This means so far in 2020, about 221,000 Americans will have died from poor diets compared to 165,600 who allegedly died from COVID-19.