Coronavirus

I haven't brought up the coronavirus on this blog up to now because I thought there was nothing I could possibly say about it, other than it's bad, like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.  But the coronavirus outbreak has gotten worse than "bad."

Over 86,000 people all over the world have contracted coronavirus, which originated in China, with over sixty countries affected, and nearly three thousand coronavirus patients, including two in the United States, have died - these numbers may be higher by the time you read this.  The coronavirus has already forced the cancellation of the Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland and, even as I'm wondering if I should even bother going to the auto show in New York this April (more of that later), the Japanese - who have cancelled school across the country for a whole month - are even wondering if they can hold the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.  (The 1940 Tokyo Olympics were cancelled by World War II, but Tokyo did host the Olympics in 1964.) So far, no sporting events in America have been canceled, and there haven't been that many cases here yet, but I wouldn't be surprised to see the 2020 World Series - which even Hitler or an earthquake couldn't stop, although a greed-motivated baseball strike in 1994 did - also get scrubbed.  Heck, Major League Baseball might want to sit out the whole season!

The Geneva Motor Show was cancelled due to a Swiss government edict banning large events until March 15, the day the show was supposed to end.  The Swiss and the Japanese seem to think the worst of the coronavirus crisis will be over before long, but those bans could be extended.  And even if large gatherings in Switzerland are allowed again as of March 16, the Geneva car show couldn't be postponed for a week or two - there's too much organization involved. Switzerland acted as it did because every nation surrounding it has a report of a coronavirus outbreak.  This past week, the Swiss reported a coronavirus case of their own.  Switzerland was able to stay neutral during World War II because it was protected by the Alps; now the world has gotten so interconnected, geography and topography can't save anyone.

The good news about the coronavirus outbreak is that governments over the world are on it, with South Korea testing thousands of people and disinfecting public spaces and Italy trying to keep coronavirus-infected areas from expanding. The bad news is that the United States has not been one of those countries.  Trump spent several days dismissing the coronavirus scare as a hoax and had put a gag order on health officials who know more about coronavirus than he does.  Without a scintilla of evidence to support his claims, he keeps telling Americans that the coronavirus outbreak will slow down and go away like a miracle.  Oh, it will slow down and go away eventually, but not as quickly as Trump would like it.  He said it would taper off by April; just bear in mind that he didn't say what year.

With the first two coronavirus deaths in America having occurred, Trump is suddenly taking it more seriously than he did before, but his approach is more happy talk and less preparation.  This virus has been around for awhile, as cases showing up only now began weeks earlier.  There are perhaps many more cases that haven't fully manifested themselves.   

Even if there were reason to believe that the coronavirus outbreak could taper off sooner rather than later, there's no indication that we're prepared to handle the coronavirus cases we do get, and the number is still rising.  We need more respirators, as this is a disease affecting breathing.  We need a more robust health-care delivery system, something we Americans have not been good at of late.  A lot of the health-care products we use come from China, where, as noted, the coronavirus started in the first place.  While it's beginning to level off there, the Chinese will still take a long time to recover before they're able to export such products to us.  Not too many other countries who make these health-care products - including this one - can make up the gap easily.   Meanwhile, the coronavirus has affected Chinese supply lines for other goods, which is bound to cause shortages elsewhere.  Hence the stock market falling 11 percent last week.

I can't let this go without mentioning one other thing: Even though the coronavirus started in China, the Chinese government tried to silence those who warned about it.  One of the doctors who was silenced has since died.  Now coronavirus is spreading all over the world.  China makes just about everything for everyone else; why did we surrender our economic power to the Chinese?? 

All of us have to be prepared for normal life bring replaced not by temporary circumstances but by a new norm. A lot of us will either have to give up going to special events or be very careful in attending them.  A lot of us may have to telecommute on our jobs.  And we're going to be more socially isolated than we've ever been, even in this social-media-fueled auto-suburb living pattern that already isolates us enough. Me, I am going to the best thing I can do to avoid getting coronavirus . . . wash my hands regularly. :-O