Coronavirus (No Politics)

All three cinemas in my local town have announced they are closed from either today or yesterday onwards. Likewise, many pubs are doing the same.

While no-one can argue against this, what with personal paranoia combined with the joys of the blame game, one can't help but wonder whether the economic turmoil wont have as much of a serious effect on the nation as the virus would have, what with all the health issues that poverty brings, from suicide to homelessness and all etc.
 
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I live a couple of blocks away from a suspected 'corona' case at a Wellington cafe. I have never been there but interesting times to be sure. I have seen people wear face masks here and there and the borders are closed in NZ now. I am worried about the effects on our tourism industry, there are 400,000 jobs on the line. It is just as well we have a government relief package on the way but unemployment is sure to be high in the medium term.

At my place of work business has slowed right down and there is talk of contingency planning. It is not possible for me to work at home due to the nature of my work so I could be looking at some forced downtime. Just as well I have a lot of leave but things are a little too interesting at the moment for my liking.
 
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I think it is likely that governments will have to get out the chequebook and underwrite most businesses to an unprecedented degree. I don't see they have much alternative. The effect of this degree of shutdown for the duration required would guarantee economic and social collapse. I think they will just have to bail people out, and worry about the staggering spend later.
 
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Over here, rents and salaries are to be paid by the government for the duration of the shutdown.
They pulled out a 380 billions euros budget to cover everything and save the (their) economy.
 
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That's good.

I think most countries will have to move to massive economic support pretty quickly. They can't escape the reality that letting large swathes of society suddenly go broke will cause a total breakdown of order. So I think people worried about money have at least some reason to be hopeful - if they let you go broke, then most people would be going broke, and they don't dare let that happen.

They're going to have to provide lifelines to businesses too, or there'll be no businesses or jobs left when we emerge.
 
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Ripper said:
They're going to have to provide lifelines to businesses too, or there'll be no businesses or jobs left when we emerge.
Click to expand...
Keyword is "when".
One month like that won't be so bad I suppose (actually even good from an ecological standpoint), but imagine six month, or one year... We would "emerge" on a different planet, with a new world order.

And you're right, if the desease stick around for a while, governments that refuse to pay the bill will experiment serious social issues in their countries, probably followed by social unrests.
 
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Yea, even Trump and the GOP are now talking about an emergency monthly payment(s) to people here in the USA...the hysteria is out of control though, in my humble opinion. They are treating this as if its Ebola when it primarily effects elderly people and has a much lower fatality rate than something like Ebola.

Also, I agree that its dangerous to allow government overreach and draconian laws during this time. Like, some people are so panicked they want the local government or governor to institute martial law-like measures, and say that people can't be on streets or have a curfew and restrict freedom of movement.

Hopefully, there will be resistance to any such moves because just the fact that some people are going to beaches and so on, and still living their lives as usual, I take that as a good sign that it would be difficult to enforce martial law here. The only times it has been used on a widespread basis is during World War in the past and also during civil war, so I hope any such laws (if introduced or implemented) are challenged and taken to the Supreme Court just in case, to protect the constitution.
 
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Arkadia7 said:
Yea, even Trump and the GOP are now talking about an emergency monthly payment(s) to people here in the USA...the hysteria is out of control though, in my humble opinion. They are treating this as if its Ebola when it primarily effects elderly people and has a much lower fatality rate than something like Ebola.

Also, I agree that its dangerous to allow government overreach and draconian laws during this time. Like, some people are so panicked they want the local government or governor to institute martial law-like measures, and say that people can't be on streets or have a curfew and restrict freedom of movement.

Hopefully, there will be resistance to any such moves because just the fact that some people are going to beaches and so on, and still living their lives as usual, I take that as a good sign that it would be difficult to enforce martial law here. The only times it has been used on a widespread basis is during World War in the past and also during civil war, so I hope any such laws (if introduced or implemented) are challenged and taken to the Supreme Court just in case, to protect the constitution.
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Ebola doesn't spread like this does but yes as I said before I still think there is overreaction to this.

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45 minutes of David Icke...

Did the lizards do it?
 
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I think the over-reaction to the virus is causing way more harm. As others have said the resulting suffering, homelessness, lost jobs, suicide, economic ruin, poverty, violence is causing way more damage than virus that isn't even that deadly.

EDIT: I am also much more fearful of loss of liberty and martial law than I am of the virus and I am in a moderate risk group (over 55 with some respiratory issues).
 
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Dogs and cats, living together. Mass hysteria!!

This too, shall pass. Although I am curious as to what congress will actually do to help those in dire need, for now my expectations are quite low.
 
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Read Tesla was forced to shut down a factory. Are the shutdown of non-essential industry implemented across whole US? Here it is primarily schools and business related to public-facing services that are shut down.
 
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Car manufacturing is going to be real low for a while in Europe. Think I'm gonna buy a dozen, before they are all gone. ;)

The world's biggest carmaker is shutting down in Europe

Coronavirus: BMW, Honda and Toyota suspend UK car production

Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz and other automotive brands, is shutting down production in Europe as the coronavirus outbreak rages

There's more mentioned in the articles, including companies which (decided to) shut down even earlier.

Similar to the US, I think. Definitely not just Tesla.
 
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I wondered what people who have played the board game "Pandemic" would say to what is happening now ?
The board game exists for ... 10 years ow ? but I have never played it.
 
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Alrik Fassbauer said:
I wondered what people who have played the board game "Pandemic" would say to what is happening now ?
The board game exists for … 10 years ow ? but I have never played it.
Click to expand...

Board games are out of question right now, it would involve the very social contacts that we are supposed to avoid (I wonder whether this irony ever occured to the developers of the Pandemic board game).

But not all is lost! Of course there's a PC adaption of the game, even available on steam.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/622440/Pandemic_The_Board_Game/

Currently watching the trailers, to see how realistic they are.

The ratings are unfortunately poor.
 
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Alrik Fassbauer said:
I wondered what people who have played the board game "Pandemic" would say to what is happening now ?
The board game exists for … 10 years ow ? but I have never played it.
Click to expand...

If not available, then Plague Inc, the video game, is an option. Even though it is doubtful it gets updated with a corona virus edition.

Cacheperl said:
Board games are out of question right now, it would involve the very social contacts that we are supposed to avoid (I wonder whether this irony ever occured to the developers of the Pandemic board game).
Click to expand...

The goal is not to avoid social contacts, the goal is to reduce the number down to a threshold the virus dies out.

This is how all this confinement fails: people living in high density population areas and were exposed to more than 50 social contacts per day and who own properties hundreds kilometers away might move there while people who have a poor social life, under 10 social contacts per day are prevented to move 500 meters away from their home.

Board gaming should fit in the containment thing.

Stated elsewhere, due to specificities and trademark of the stuff, people who are coerced usually are the least threatening while people with a higher risk are allowed to spread the virus.
 
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Well, if people continue being stupid and going to meet and party, there is basically no way around more draconic rules. Or we just accept that tons of people die.
Don't want to be an 80+ person in Italy, where some younger person gets in and needs help and they have to make the decision to use the breathing apparatus for him instead of me as I had my life already. Once hospitals have to prioritize who gets a chance to live and who will have to die, it gets serious.
It might even get more serious if only the people with money/ensurance get this privilege. So...people should either self isolate properly or the state needs to take action to avoid this scenario. As you can see in italy even with these measures it will be tough.
 
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