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It’s a Tough Monday
We wonder. The Coronavirus has the world gripped in fear and firmly in its nasty little paws.
How bad would it be if you were stuck on a cruise ship that has over 50 cases and counting and no cities or states want you? Oakland stepped up and now you step off of the confinement of the ship into a different confinement with your fellow passengers to see if you will become the latest confirmed case. It’s a two-week mind game that you hope to not have to play.
How bad would it be if your business was sailing cruise ships? The US State Department issued a statement this weekend advising all citizens to avoid cruise ships for their own protection from the virus. Our wild guess is that future bookings might be down 80% or more.
How bad will this entire surreal medical emergency get? On one hand, it seems (assuming that the Chinese government is telling the truth) that the spread of cases in China has slowed a good bit. On the other hand, the cases in South Korea, Italy, and Iran seem to be accelerating.
How bad is it in Italy? Sixteen million citizens are now being self quarantined in Northern Italy. The plan to do so got leaked. And with it many citizens rushed to get out of the quarantined zone. So much for quarantining it. The plan got leaked and so did the virus. Italian stocks on the blue-chip FTSE MIB initially failed to open Monday along with other European markets. When the index did open, stocks were trading down 2,290 points, or about 11% lower. Italy has over 7500 confirmed cases and 366 deaths and counting.
The NBA told its teams to prepare for playing games in empty areas to try to help slow the transmission. All Italian sporting events will do just that till April at a minimum. Japan is the host country for the 2020 Summer Games in late July. There are a lot of yen bet that the torch never gets lit.
How bad is the perception? In a word, it is terrible. How bad is the reality? That’s the unknown and hence the fear which is now bordering on panic.
We suppose as the weather warms, our immune systems do what they do, or if a vaccine were to be developed that this too shall somehow pass.
Why does it feel different this time?
We wonder.
We hope.
Stay strong.
Comment section
How bad was the administrations response to the Coronavirus outbreak? In a word, miserable.
The administration’s approach from the onset has been containment. That only works when the virus is not already here and spreading. They were so concerned with the number of cases they failed to use that time to prepare instead pointing to the media and Dems as the cause for panic and to discredit Trump. When finally it became indisputable that an outbreak was underway the administration was slow to catch up. There were not enough testing kits, hotlines overwhelmed and hospitals and publish health departments hobbled by a lack of reliable statistics. This has left us months behind schedule. As one health expert said “we were flying dark for six weeks, time that should have been used collecting data from the hundreds of more cases that are already here.” Why were we so slow for testing you might ask? Great question, let’s bring in our first guest, the man whose title qualifies him for running an outbreak task force despite no knowledge, Mr. Vice President Mike Pence. Mr. Vice President do we have enough tests to meet the demand? “We don’t have enough tests today to meet what we anticipate the demand going forward.” Umm that doesn’t sound good Mr. Vice President, why is that…..”Soon we will be able to test 10,000 people a day.” That wasn’t my question, but the answer is because we botched it from the start. Pence made the decision to forgo the WHO test which had been distributed to over sixty countries worldwide, and instead begin a protracted process of producing and American Test. This test was delayed by manufacturing problems, lab contamination and logistical delays. Thank you for the time Mr. Vice President Cough, Cough.
Our next guest, White House economic adviser Mr. Larry Kudlow from Feb 24th. Mr. Kudlow what’s the current situation look like? “We have contained this, I won’t say airtight but pretty close to airtight.” Wrong answer Larry, now go sit in the corner on time out.
Finally, our last guest, Mr. President himself from Feb 25th, who tweeted (because that makes sense when reassuring the American public on an outbreak) the virus was “very much under control” from a man who very much likes being in control, then double downed when asked about the number of cases and stated they “are going down not up.” and that “The 15 (cases) within a couple days is going to be down close to zero” Or increased to 500 with 22 deaths as of today with hundreds more not detected because of the testing kits debacle. Cough, Cough.
It’s not even that the administration should have been caught by surprise with the outbreak. Since Jan, epidemiologists, former US public health officials and experts have been warning both publicly and privately that the administrations insistence was and should be the primary wat to confront the disease was a grave mistake. Cough, Cough, Cough. Enjoy the week in containment. Make America Healthy Again.
Hmmm. Well, there have been plenty of mistakes to go around. In fact, the CDC let one positive tested patient walk from containment a few weeks back. The restrictions to and from China implemented early and panned were likely a good move. It seems to me that the progression isn’t as geometric as they might be. I hope that continues.
Your entry easily wins the all-time BBR award for most words ever. Well done all around.
The first 4 months of flu season in the US has killed 12,000 patients and we have a vaccine for this virus.
In the 2017-2018 flu season, 61,000 patients in the US died from flu related illness.
Without a vaccine, 30-something patients have died from COVID-19 / Corona virus. Can we get some perspective? Why aren’t we quarantining
patients who test positive for influenza?
Restrictions can help on the onset but they never took into account it had spread well past China at that point. You woulda have needed restrictions on several other countries as well and still would not have stopped it from coming. Agree, hope it slows for spring, fall however is not that far off to start preparing.
If only Hillary was president. Even though the borders would be wide open, no American or “undocumented American” would have the virus and test kits would be available free on Amazon prime with overnight shipping. Feel the Bern in 2020. Maybe Bernie can choose Hillary for VP so she could head up the Corona Virus Task Force instead of unqualified Pesky Pence.
In defense of Hillary, she did wash her email regularly with bleachbit. So she does have experience in proper hygiene in the workplace. It’s a start.
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