How is the Coronavirus effecting you?

[JosephM]

How is the Coronavirus effecting you?

Being a retirement community of older people here we are mostly shut down and dealing with self-isolation even without symptoms.

Stock Market has tumbled..

[Burl]

Not much impact yet, but I’m 64 with severe lung issues and a wife that works in the ER so I expect to get hit by this bug pretty hard.

I posted before we knew about COVID-19 that an economic failure was coming.  That was obvious from economics reports.  I suspect closing everything is a convenient scapegoat.

[Elen1107]

I think that it's making me over nervous. The thing gives me the creeps.

I have wondered if perhaps an opportunity for people to get used to their own company and make good friends with themselves.

I wish the thing would just go away. . 😞 . 

[Elen1107]

I don't know about the C-virus, but massive amounts of vitamin C seem to help in fighting off the common flue and colds.

Also drinking plenty of fluids.

[PaulS]

I work in health & safety on an Offshore gas production facility, so it has been a major focus for me.  As we’re a little bit like a cruise ship (200 people on board in the middle of the ocean) the focus has been on preventing the virus from arriving here (although I think most now understand that it is probably only a matter of time).

We fly in people from all over the world to one town, and then helicopter them out to the facility.  Now that coming into Australia earns you a 14-day quarantine, a lot of those people won’t be working.  Our company has also taken an exceptionally cautious approach so if somebody at the heliport has the sniffles, we are preventing them and their fellow passengers from coming out.  If somebody on board finds out a week after getting here that family back home have symptoms, we are sending them back to the beach as a precaution.  It’s pretty full on and is causing all sorts of issues with work planning.

I myself fly home in 48hrs (I’ve been out here for three weeks and so much has changed in that time!) but it sounds like I’m going back to a world gone crazy with supermarket shortages on toilet paper and staples such as flour and rice.  My wife went shopping and she said almost all canned goods were sold out too.  Interesting times.

Social distancing or better yet - isolation, and washing your hands, are key to minimising risk.  Hopefully the rate of the infection can be contained as much as possible to buy time for a vaccine to be developed.  

[JosephM]

Today's figures on Coronavirus. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

[JosephM]

Interesting statistics. 

To date Global Death toll just topped 10,000 from the Coronavirus  (COVID-19)

Globally ~9,100,000 people die from  starvation/hunger each year

Globally ~7,000,000 people die from  heart disease each year

Globally ~5,000,000 people die from  strokes each year

Globally ~2,000,000 people die from  cancer each year

Globally ~2,000,000 people die from  Diabetes each year

Globally ~1,250,000 people die from  car accidents each year

Globally ~750,000 people die from mosquitoes each year

Globally ~ 500,000 people die from Flu each year

Globally ~437,000 people die from  murders each year

Globally ~100,000 people die from  snakes each year

Globally ~50,000 people die from  dogs each year

It just makes one wonder how many more will commit suicide from losing everything or die from hunger/starvation if the economy is globally shut down too long for this virus? The death effect of the virus seems to be  greatest  on the old and poor in heath.  The economic effect at least in this country seems to be greatest on the young and middle aged working class that lives paycheck to paycheck. What do make of that?

[Burl]

The economy is not being shut down because of the virus.  Our economy failed in 2008 and has been rolling downhill since then.

The virus is providing a convenient excuse and distraction for the increasingly evident economic failure.

Edited March 21, 2020 by Burl

[JosephM]

9 hours ago, Burl said:

The economy is not being shut down because of the virus.  Our economy failed in 2008 and has been rolling downhill since then.

The virus is providing a convenient excuse and distraction for the increasingly evident economic failure.

I'm curious......

I can see the economy failed in 2008 but i would like to understand exactly what you mean by it "has been rolling downhill since then" .

Also, in what way before the virus, was the economy failure becoming "increasingly evident"?

[Burl]

2 hours ago, JosephM said:

I'm curious......

I can see the economy failed in 2008 but i would like to understand exactly what you mean by it "has been rolling downhill since then" .

Also, in what way before the virus, was the economy failure becoming "increasingly evident"?

None of the 2008 economic problems were fixed.  

Some of the biggest signs are interest rates dropping to below inflation levels, the inversion of the yield curve, companies buying back their own stock instead of distributing or reinvesting earnings, the ongoing repo bailout and the absurd multiple hypothecation of assets.

 

 

Edited March 21, 2020 by Burl

[JosephM]

Thanks for the response.

[Burl]

24 minutes ago, JosephM said:

Thanks for the response.

I can go into more detail on each of those events.  The laser summary is we are going through a national bankruptcy for the fifth or sixth time.

Another major depression and another new dollar, but this time it looks like this time we may escape a major war.

Pray for peace.

[PaulS]

How's everybody travelling out there?  I hope you are all safe and well.

We're not copping it too bad here in Australia, comparatively, but it's still pretty unique to have so much of industry, retail and schools shut down.  I think we have been lucky to date that our weather has still been warm and dry (we are mid-Autumn now, so heading into our cold and flu season soon) and that we commenced restrictions and isolations relatively early on in the piece.  Most of our infections have come from cruise ships and people returning form overseas it seems,  so there is a quiet confidence that we may be getting on top of it before it takes further hold.  21 deceased and nearly 5000 cases, but I know that's small fry compared to a lot of other nations out there.

[Burl]

Still alive!  Real but an extreme overreaction imo. 

[JosephM]

Paul,

Austrailia is spread out without  a lot of big cities like the US. The majority of our cases are in 4 states out of 50. Perhaps that also has much to do with your relatively few cases at this time. You seem to be doubling your number of cases weekly now and it may be expanding. We are doubling every 6 days now but started with about 1000 cases earlier than you. It must be very contagious as it seems to spread quickly even with all our lock-downs and guidelines in place. You hit app 1000 known cases on the 18th Mar We were there on the 10th of Mar. You may see a dramatic increase over the next few weeks. It seems to me it will take its course and all we are doing is delaying the inevitable so our hospitals can handle the load of the serious cases. We can't hide forever without destroying our economies completely which will bring on more serious problems.

[thormas]

I don't see the US response as an overkill at all and suspect, given the experts, that it should have been earlier and should be broader - for a set time in the hope of curtailing the spread. 

If delaying the inevitable is also limiting the inevitable, I'm in.

Fingers crossed for the world.

[JosephM]

4 hours ago, thormas said:

I don't see the US response as an overkill at all and suspect, given the experts, that it should have been earlier and should be broader - for a set time in the hope of curtailing the spread. 

If delaying the inevitable is also limiting the inevitable, I'm in.

Fingers crossed for the world.

Yes, delaying the inevitable will save lives up to a point as our hospitals couldn't handle greater numbers at this time and would have to choose who gets a ventilator and who doesn't. Where that point is ..... i certainly don't know.

[PaulS]

14 hours ago, JosephM said:

 

Austrailia is spread out without  a lot of big cities like the US. The majority of our cases are in 4 states out of 50. Perhaps that also has much to do with your relatively few cases at this time. You seem to be doubling your number of cases weekly now and it may be expanding. We are doubling every 6 days now but started with about 1000 cases earlier than you. It must be very contagious as it seems to spread quickly even with all our lock-downs and guidelines in place. You hit app 1000 known cases on the 18th Mar We were there on the 10th of Mar. You may see a dramatic increase over the next few weeks. It seems to me it will take its course and all we are doing is delaying the inevitable so our hospitals can handle the load of the serious cases. We can't hide forever without destroying our economies completely which will bring on more serious problems.

Our isolation and distance between cities is certainly our advantage in this scenario.  Like the US, our overall statistics are skewed by different states.  Our state of NSW is the most affected, primarily because of one cruise ship that was allowed to dock and infected passengers disembarked (but even that state has dropped from triple to double digit rates recently). My home state of WA has reduced it's new cases from in the 20's per day down to single figures.  We may see an increase on our eastern coast due to the overall numbers, but there are heavy measures in place and being further brought in to ensure isolation and social distancing, so like I said, there is a quiet confidence that we are getting the better of it at this stage.  It's certainly not going through the roof the wrong way anyway.

Indeed we can't hide forever but I understand, like you I think, that these measures are required to 'allow' a more controlled spread of the virus to ensure our health systems aren't overrun with cases which invariably will shut them down and further the issues.  In my opinion, our systems and economies are set up presently, so to speak, to cope with the numbers of people that die each year from the above list you posted of expected causes.  It's the introduction of a new and rapid cause that has thrown everything out of kilter.  A worst case scenario (that is if we all just went with the 'herd' option) would probably have seen tens of millions of deaths suddenly, just like with the Spanish Flu, which would indeed have a bigger impact on the economy than this 6 or so months of disruption, I think.

Where that line gets drawn and we open society back up in stages, remains to be determined.  I think luckily for you guys in the US, it isn't going to be Easter Sunday at least!