The Irrational Fear and the cost of the Wuhan Virus, Is it worth it?

[Hypocrite-The]

Its common knowledge that the wuhan virus is no less deadly than the flu and the fear of it is causing more problems than the virus itself. This is due to the authorities overreacting and making mountains out of molehills. And yet it still continues. If the people are stupid due to the overreaction. The authorities are even more retarded by harping on the virus and coming up with their containment policies and talking crap.
Our fear of coronavirus could be 'far more contagious than the disease itself'
Posted Fri 6 Mar 2020 at 8:54pm
Fear of the new contagion, it would seem, has infected the globe.(AP: Kim Jun-beom via Yonhap)
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

Franklin D Roosevelt was, of course, responding to the economic and social turmoil of the Great Depression, and the "nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror" that had left the nation paralysed.

But, as scenes of barren supermarket shelves are broadcast into living rooms across the country, and confirmed cases of coronavirus are tallied like sport, you'd be forgiven for thinking there are some parallels.

Fear of the new contagion has, paradoxically, become a global infection.

But it's not for the reason you might think.

'Emotions are contagious'
Karin Wahl-Jorgensen, a professor at Cardiff University, has spent the past decade studying the role of emotions in journalism — and coronavirus is no exception.

Amid foreboding headlines like "killer virus" and "deadly disease", she began tracking media coverage of the outbreak, starting from initial reports about the new "mystery illness" on January 12 up until February 13.

Almost 100 high-circulating, English-language newspapers from around the world collectively published 9,387 stories about the virus during this period — and of those, 1,066 mentioned "fear" or related words, like "afraid".

"By contrast, over the same period — which is actually the high period for seasonal influenza — we're looking around 400 stories covered in this way, and fewer than one-in-ten of those stories actually mentioned fear or similar phrases," Professor Wahl-Jorgensen said.

Unlike previous epidemics, Professor Wahl-Jorgensen adds, coronavirus is playing out through the lens of a "hybrid media system", where traditional mainstream media and social media collide.

This decade-old map showing global air travel was passed off as illustrating the spread of coronavirus.(Twitter)
"This fear leads people to take actions to perhaps prepare themselves for the apocalypse, which might actually be socially counterproductive," Professor Wahl-Jorgensen said.

"Things like hoarding face masks or, as we've seen in Australia, buying absolutely insane amounts of toilet paper.

"That is something individuals do because they want to take some action to address the fear they feel. But they're not rational or productive from a social point of view."

'Observing other people is the cue for us'
Fear is, at its most basic, a survival mechanism — think "fight or flight".

It's highly adaptive and can be triggered by more than just personal experience with a perceived threat (say, for example, being bitten by a dog).

"One is observation, so if you see someone else being bitten by a dog [that can trigger a fear of dogs]," says Ottmar Lipp, a research professor in Curtin University's School of Psychology.

"The other is information that we receive in other means. So, one way of becoming afraid of going to the beach, for instance, is watching Jaws."

Professor Lipp believes our fear of coronavirus and a prospective pandemic is multifaceted.

There's the fear of the unknown. The fear of disease. The fear of illness. The fear of contagion.

And that fear, paradoxically, can spread through populations just as seamlessly.

"Particularly if the person who shows that fear is in a position of authority or who someone relies on for their cues."

Are some of us more prone to fear than others?
Australians have seen this fear play out in real time as the impending threat of a coronavirus pandemic has seen supermarket shelves stripped of toilet paper, canned goods, hand sanitiser and bottled water.

For some, it's out of fear of facing two weeks in self-isolation without supplies. For others, it's out of fear of running out of toilet paper — virus or no virus.

Could not display Tweet
Though it may have garnered headlines across the globe, it is not a phenomenon unique to Australia.

Similar responses have been well-documented during times of economic and social instability.

During the Brexit impasse, for example, a quarter of UK voters said they had started taking precautions against the adverse consequences of a "no" deal, including stockpiling food, toiletries and medicines.

Similar scenes have been observed in the United States, where winter storms coincide with a sudden spike in demand for bread, milk and eggs.

While there are varying schools of thought around our psychological response to panic buying, it begs the question: are some of us simply more prone to feeling fear than others?(Supplied)
While there are varying schools of thought around our psychological response to panic-buying, it begs the question: are some of us simply more prone to feeling fear than others?

"[There are] individual differences, some people are more anxious than others, which may come from genetics," says Professor Lipp.

"There's a certain propensity of inherent fears, but it's also the experience of when you grow up.

"So, one of the predictors of being anxious for a child, for example, is how anxious mum and dad are."

'Is stockpiling toilet paper really helping us?'
So, how do you maintain a sense of equilibrium when faced with an "unjustified terror", as Roosevelt alluded to?

Professor Wahl-Jorgensen believes it comes down to careful analysis of the cold, hard facts.

"Because we see these constant tallies of the number of new cases of coronavirus, that leaves a sense of urgency to the situation," she says.

"I imagine if we had a similar breakdown of the number of influenza cases, we would see similar public concern about influenza."

Taking a break from rolling coverage around the disease is also beneficial, adds Professor Lipp, who recommends, first and foremost, listening to the experts.

"See what objective information we actually have, how dangerous is it for us, what can we do to minimise the risk and the dangers?

"[And ask yourself] is stockpiling toilet paper really helping us in that situation? Most likely not."

Watch
Duration: 30 minutes 17 seconds
30m

 

[Hypocrite-The]

Already 77yo...how long he want to live ?

Elderly infected with Covid-19 after sharing ward in SGH with patient who later tests positive - The Online Citizen
Correspondent
A 77-year-old Singaporean elderly man, who shared the same ward with another patient later confirmed to be carrying the Covid-19 virus, was reported to have contracted the virus too. This was disclosed by the Ministry of Health (MOH) yesterday (6 Mar).

MOH said that the 77-year-old, Case 126, had been in the same ward as Case 109 in Singapore General Hospital (SGH) last Saturday and Sunday (29 Feb and 1 Mar).

“Case 126 is a 77 year-old male Singapore Citizen who has no recent travel history to affected countries and regions. He was confirmed to have COVID-19 infection on 5 March afternoon and is currently warded in an isolation room at NCID,” MOH said in a statement.

“Case 126 had been in the same ward as Case 109 at Singapore General Hospital from 29 February to 1 March, before Case 109 had been confirmed to have COVID-19 infection.”

MOH added, “As part of enhanced precautions, patients who have acute respiratory infection will be placed in wards with greater separation between patients to minimise the risk of infection.”

Case 109 works at Fish Mart Sakuraya at 154 West Coast Road and lives at Everton Park. He reported onset of symptoms on 25 Feb and sought treatment at a clinic on 27 and 28 Feb. He was finally warded in SGH on 29 Feb sharing the same ward with Case 126. However, at the point in time, case 109 had not been tested positive for Covid-19 virus. He was only confirmed to be infected with the virus on Monday (2 Mar) afternoon.

SGH to review its processes

MOH director of medical services Kenneth Mak said it is still investigating the possibility of Covid-19 infection between Case 109 and 126 occurring in the same ward. He said, “We have asked SGH to look into their processes to make sure that there were no lapses, no breaches of their processes and to ensure that patient safety is not compromised.”

SGH’s head of infectious diseases Tan Thuan Tong defended that patients who do not meet case definitions for Covid-19 but have respiratory tract infections are put in designated wards to protect other patients at hospitals.

“The reason why (Case 126) was in the same ward was (that) as part of the enhanced precautions, patients who have acute respiratory infection will be placed in wards with greater separation between patients to minimise the risk of infection,” Tan said.

Case 126 and 109 were put in the same ward before the latter was tested positive for Covid-19.

He added that in such wards, each bed is almost 3m apart. “In this ward, we also ask patients to put on masks, we ask them to practise social distancing,” he said. “Moving forward, I think we will look at our processes.”

To assure the public, Tan said another patient who shared the ward with Case 126 and 109 is currently well.

Meanwhile, the wife of Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen, Ivy Ng who is the Group CEO of SingHealth overseeing SGH, remains mum.

Share this:

 

[Hypocrite-The]

Coronavirus: Hongkongers caring for special needs individuals at ‘breaking point’ as necessary services are scaled back

• Survey shows respondents, many in lower-income brackets, dealing with lack of sleep, shortened tempers and depression as pressure mounts at home
• Lawmaker calls on government to green light allowance for those caring for relatives at home along with new funds for treatment and training services

Fiona Sun
Published: 9:00pm, 7 Mar, 2020

Carrie Ng Gui-di, who has a 12-year-old daughter with ADHD, speaks at the March 7 launch event for a survey detailing the struggles of families caring for those with special needs amid the Covid-19 epidemic. Photo: Dickson Lee

More than nine in 10 Hongkongers caring for family members with special needs, including the disabled, the elderly and children with special educational needs, have felt increasingly helpless amid the coronavirus epidemic, a new survey calling for government financial support shows.
The city’s attempts to contain the highly infectious disease has caused the city’s kindergartens, primary and secondary schools to close until April 20 at the earliest, while the Social Welfare Department and some NGOs have cut back their services to reduce infection risks.
That has resulted in mounting pressure on the residents who desperately rely on those services.
The survey, initiated by Labour Party lawmaker Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung and released at a press conference on Saturday, polled 1,400 respondents between February 27 and March 4, with 90 per cent of those surveyed women and 72 per cent acting as full-time carers.

Wong Shun-lau, who has Parkinson’s disease and his wife Tsin Yin-kwan meet the press at the Legislative Council Complex on March 7. Photo: Dickson Lee
“The situation of carers is dire,” Cheung said. “As schools have closed and services have been cut back, the responsibility of taking care of those with special needs has shifted to carers, who have reached the breaking point.

Advertisement

“Facing the epidemic, the frustration and helplessness of carers has been neglected,” he said.

The coronavirus has killed more than 3,400 people and infected more than 101,000 worldwide, mostly in mainland China. Hong Kong has recorded more than 100 cases, two of whom have died.
HONG KONG NEWS NEWSLETTER
Get updates direct to your inbox
SUBSCRIBE
By registering, you agree to our T&C and Privacy Policy
According to the survey, 73 per cent of respondents were caring for children – many of whom struggled with autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or intellectual disabilities – while more than 20 per cent were attending to spouses or elderly parents.

Facing a lack of hygiene products and fearing infection, those with special needs and the people caring for them are often trapped at home. The survey found 42 per cent went out only once or twice a week, while 40 per cent did not go out at all.

Tsin Yin-kwan, 68, has been taking care of her 74-year-old husband, Wong Shun-lau, who has suffered from Parkinson's disease for more than 10 years, ever since the residential home where he lived closed over the Lunar New Year holiday because of epidemic fears.
Read more

Top WHO official praises Hong Kong’s ‘effective’ measures to tackle virus
Read more

I’ll have a sign language lesson with that: dining differently in Mong Kok
Read more

Children may be just as vulnerable to coronavirus as adults, study finds


Tsin said her husband could fall down easily while walking, meaning she had to keep her eye on him at all times. While she used to attend social activities in her community, attending to her husband, she said, is now a full-time job.
“I have to follow him wherever he goes, even to the bathroom,” she said. “I feel great pressure, both physically and mentally.”

Advertisement
For those taking care of children with special educational needs (SEN), a category covering a range of developmental problems from learning difficulties and autism to physical disabilities and mental illness, the closure of schools and suspension of day care centres and rehabilitation services has caused their conditions to worsen.
Coronavirus outbreak makes life even tougher for Hong Kong’s disabled
17 Feb 2020

The survey found more than 70 per cent of those polled said the people they cared for showed emotional or behavioural problems amid the epidemic, with 16 per cent calling those problems serious.
Single-mother Carrie Ng Gui-di, 50, has been staying at home, taking care of her 12-year-old daughter, who was diagnosed with ADHD three years ago. She said her daughter at first felt excited about the suspension of classes, but as time went by, the long hours at home made her restless, leading her to occasionally start screaming.
“She would keep asking me ‘Mum, when can I go back to school? When can I have my previous life back?’” Ng said. “I’m so worried seeing her condition worsen.”
Her own life dramatically disrupted, Ng said she feels she has no place to vent her feelings of helplessness.
“I have to take care of my daughter who is hyperactive all day long. For now, I only want to take a break and have a good night’s sleep,” she said.

Lack of sleep was a common theme among survey respondents, with 74 saying it had become an issue. More than 50 per cent, meanwhile, said they were losing their tempers more easily, while more than half said they were dealing with depression – serious depression in the case of 15 per cent.
Another 51 per cent said they were experiencing physical pain.
Meanwhile, while the city’s battle with the coronavirus has seen services cut back, home carers are also dealing with the reality of an economic downturn that has left many jobless or with their hours slashed.
Most of the survey’s respondents came from lower-income households, with 66 per cent having a monthly household income HK$25,000 or less, and 40 per cent bringing home no more than HK$15,000 a month, the survey showed.
The NGO helping Hongkongers with disabilities break into the workforce
30 Mar 2019

Given the challenges they now face, lawmaker Cheung called on the government to provide allowances for those caring for family members, as well as new funds for treatment and training for those with special needs.
He also urged the Social Welfare Department and the Education Bureau to provide masks and other protective items for affected families, and called on schools and social service units to connect with and support them through the internet.
Cheung said essential services catering to their needs – including house cleaning, grocery shopping and bathing – should be reinforced during the epidemic, instead of being cut back.
“You simply can’t leave an elderly person at home without a shower for two months,” he said.

 

[theblackhole]

Please also note, I have continued to call the Coronavirus the Wuhan Virus instead of the new faggot term,,,,its better to call a spade, a spade and no point hiding the fact that this virus was caused by Wuhan Tiongs and its causing problems for the people the world over

you are really hypocritical man. what wuhan. better call it wushu!! go and read more about this covid19. it's from your head...haha

 

[theblackhole]

the world getting real bored and silly. so they created this covid18 turning to covid19 turning to covid20 to have some excitement . upset the world and create a new order. and you can see who is losing now and who is the real winner in this covid war. haha.

 

[theblackhole]

the world getting real bored and silly. so they created this covid18 turning to covid19 turning to covid20 to have some excitement . upset the world and create a new order. and you can see who is losing now and who is the real winner in this covid war. haha.

 

[ginfreely]

Xia suay malaysian sons of whores like @Valium @sweetiepie @glockman @Bad New Brown @nightsafari with no morals no kindness no wisdom and no courage to take up my virginity test challenge are so xia suay indeed.

 

[Hypocrite-The]

Continued travel bans aren’t going to stop spread of the new coronavirus
A model shows that the quarantine in Wuhan delayed international cases by two to three weeks

By Nicole Wetsman
on March 6, 2020 3:05 pm

Photo by May James/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Restrictions on flights in and out of China wouldn’t have prevented the novel coronavirus from circling the globe, a new model shows. Even if the amount of international travel in and out of China had been cut by 90 percent after February 1st, the trajectory of the epidemic would not have changed significantly — not without other efforts made to stop the spread of infection, like the isolation of people who were sick.

The model, published in the journal Science, was built using transportation data and information on the dynamics of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The authors generated a range of possible scenarios for the movement of the disease through China and around the world.

Officials quarantined the city of Wuhan, China, where the virus originated, at the end of January. The model found that shutting down the Wuhan airport would only delay spread of the epidemic through mainland China by under a week. By January 23rd, it showed the virus would have been brought to several places around the country. That projection matches World Health Organization (WHO) data on cases of COVID-19 in China.

Travel restrictions in and out of Wuhan slowed the number of cases imported from China into other countries by two to three weeks, according to the model. But there were already enough cases outside of Wuhan by that point that stopping international spread was impossible — the virus could travel from Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, and other cities.

The model’s conclusions were echoed by experts at the WHO. “Measures on movement restriction have delayed the dissemination of the outbreak two or three days within China and a few weeks outside China,” Sylvie Briand, director of infectious hazard management at the WHO, said in a press conference.

The WHO originally said that countries should not restrict travel in response to the novel virus, and experts questioned the wisdom of locking down cities. But even though it did not stop the epidemic from jumping outside of China, the delay bought other countries some time to prepare. The cost to people living in Wuhan, though, has been high — residents and health care workers have been living and working under a psychologically and physically taxing lockdown for weeks.

Now that the virus is present around the world, additional or continued travel restrictions are likely to have a limited impact on the epidemic, the researchers wrote. Policies that reduce the spread of disease within communities, like early detection and isolation of cases, will be the best way to fight the outbreaks, they concluded.

 

[Hypocrite-The]

Instead of containing it,,,should just mitigate it,,,containment is a failure



SARS-CoV-2 is a new kind of coronavirus that appeared suddenly in late 2019. The disease it causes, called COVID-19, is now showing signs that it's able to spread outside of its place of origin. This raises some questions... like, do we have a pandemic on our hands? What’s the difference between a pandemic and an epidemic? SciShow News has some facts to help you understand a complex and rapidly changing situation.

 

[Hypocrite-The]

Coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak scare hits restaurants and pubs as fearful patrons turn away
By Evelyn Manfield
Posted 18 minutes ago

PHOTO: Little Creatures brewery in Fremantle is just one restaurant that has been hit by cancellations. (ABC News)
RELATED STORY: 'It's hopeless right now': Coronavirus fears push Chinese restaurants to the brink
RELATED STORY: 'I'm devastated': Why many Chinese restaurants are struggling to pull in customers
RELATED STORY: Two more coronavirus cases confirmed as WA records state's first human-to-human transmission
The entire hospitality industry is being warned to brace for a drop in business following the coronavirus outbreak after a series of functions were cancelled at one of the country's most famous breweries, while patronage continues to plummet at Chinese restaurants.

Key points:

• Chinese restaurants say they have seen a record decline in patrons
• The drop in custom is blamed on fewer students, travellers and "irrational" fear
• The business lobby warns it's a sign of what's to come across the board

The ABC understands Fremantle's Little Creatures Brewing, one of Australia's pioneering microbreweries, had 300 people across three functions recently cancel because of restrictions on travel.

It comes as the number of cases diagnosed in the city jumped to six this week, including the first human-to-human transmission.

WA's peak business group, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI), warned businesses right across the hospitality sector would soon feel significant short-term impacts from the outbreak.

PHOTO: The Little Creatures brewery is a popular destination for tourists and locals. (ABC News: Giulio Saggin, file photo)


"Restaurants right across the board will be feeling the pinch to some extent," chief economist Aaron Morey said.

"However I think the greatest impacts are probably in those Chinese restaurants because there may be a bit of irrational fear."

Coronavirus update: Follow all the latest news in our daily wrap


Mr Morey said more restaurants and cafes would likely feel the drop if the share market continued to experience sustained falls, because people would cut back on discretionary spending and eating out would be where they first looked to save money.

He said a local outbreak of the virus would also rock the industry.

"The real risk on the horizon for spending of local consumers is if there's a widespread local outbreak and people stay home through a fear of contracting the virus," he said.

The CCI said a loss of international visitor expenditure alone because of the virus would cost the state about $350 million over six months.

Chinese restaurant owners see bleak times ahead
Many Chinese restaurants in Perth's busy Northbridge entertainment strip, which should be filled with crowds of hungry patrons, sat empty on the weekend.

Some owners said they had already experienced falling patronage for weeks in the wake of the global spread of COVID-19.

On a typical Saturday night at Perth's City Garden Chinese Restaurant, free tables are usually few and far between.

But in the 15 years Michelle Xian has run City Garden, she said last Saturday night was one of the quietest she had seen as more seats were empty than occupied.

"It's very, very bad," Ms Xian said.

"Normally upstairs, downstairs, outside, all full house, very, very busy."

PHOTO: Ms Xian says this is the quietest she has seen the City Garden Chinese Restaurant in 15 years. (ABC News: Evelyn Manfield)


She said just a few weeks ago the restaurant was thriving as tourists and West Australians celebrated the Fringe and Perth festivals, as well as Chinese New Year.

But as those annual summer events came to an end and awareness of coronavirus increased, Ms Xian said it culminated in a sudden 40 per cent drop.

It had forced her to consider what she would do if the decline in customers continued.

"If another 20 per cent drops down then we will close for a few weeks maybe, because once I open the door, I need to pay a lot," she said.

Usual patrons too scared to dine out
Other restaurants in Chinatown told the ABC their businesses were much quieter than usual.

At 7:20pm on Saturday, some of them were nearly empty.

One manager said they usually attracted droves of Chinese students, but many had been unable to return to university in Australia from their summer break.

PHOTO: Good Fortune Roast Duck House restaurant in Northbridge lies almost empty on a weekend. (ABC News: Evelyn Manfield)


Another manager said he thought it was because people were scared to dine out due to fear of being in public places.

At Good Fortune Roast Duck House in Northbridge, management said business had slowed, largely due to a decline in international visitors.

Manager Quan Chen said 40 tour group bookings had been cancelled since the Federal Government's travel bans took hold.

"We've had about 30-40 per cent downturn in numbers compared to December and January and over the Chinese New Year break, mainly because of the Government travel ban," he said.

PHOTO: Quan Chen runs the Good Fortune Roast Duck House in Perth. (ABC News: Evelyn Manfield)


At 6:00pm on Saturday few people sat inside the restaurant, but a constant stream of takeaway orders flew out the door.

Mr Chen said Saturday night patronage had fallen by 20 per cent, but weekdays had taken an even bigger hit, prompting the restaurant to offer discounted meals.

Other economic factors at play, hotels lobby says
Australian Hotels Association WA chief executive Bradley Woods said it was hard to know whether restaurants were quieter because of coronavirus or other economic factors.

He said after a busy holiday season, Chinese New Year and a rise in international visitors to the state last year, for some restaurants the downturn might feel more significant than it is.

"With the bushfires and then coronavirus on top of that, we've certainly seen a substantive downturn in international visitation and that might be why some of these specific ethnic cuisines restaurants are finding it a little bit tougher," Mr Woods said.

Coronavirus questions answered

Breaking down the latest news and research to understand how the world is living through an epidemic, this is the ABC's Coronacast.


Half a dozen pubs and restaurants across Northbridge who spoke to the ABC on background said there had been a slight downturn in patronage in recent weeks, but all blamed recent stormy weather and the end of a busy festival season.

Co-manager at Govinda's restaurant Nicholas Francis said he had not noticed an effect on business from coronavirus, but said it might become problematic down the track.

"I think it will have an effect if the coronavirus breaks out seriously in Western Australia," Mr Francis said.

But he said it had been difficult sourcing some supplies because of bare supermarket shelves.

WA Premier Mark McGowan said the State Government would launch a tourism campaign to encourage people to holiday in the state.

In the meantime, he said West Australians should continue to dine out to help sustain local businesses.

"Don't change your behaviour, make sure you support our economy and our community if you don't have any symptoms," Mr McGowan said.

 

[Hypocrite-The]

Coronavirus may be the threat, but the uncertainty it's creating could really cost the economy
By Gareth Hutchens
Updated Sun at 3:42am

PHOTO: It could be some time until we understand just how much COVID-19 will hit the economy, Gareth Hutchens writes. (AP: Chinatopix)
It's time to worry.

Did you hear the Insurance Council of Australia has cancelled its 2020 Annual Forum, due to be held in Sydney's Hilton Hotel on March 18, because of the risks associated with attending large public events during the COVID-19 crisis?

If Australia's actuaries have calculated the probability of contracting coronavirus from their peers and found it unfavourable, what chance do the rest of us have?

That was the joke circulating on social media on the weekend.

Coronavirus questions answered

Breaking down the latest news and research to understand how the world is living through an epidemic, this is the ABC's Coronacast.


It played on something deep in the human mind: during times of uncertainty and ambiguity, our brains crave information that makes the world appear more certain.

That's why our political leaders and health authorities have been holding near-daily press conferences at the moment — to give Australians the latest health advice, and to try to make them feel less uncertain amid the chaos of the virus outbreak.

Everywhere you look, experts are trying to understand how the virus is spreading and impacting the economy.

Preparing for the worst
Australia's chief medical officer Brendan Murphy says he has modelled a range of possible scenarios, in which a different number of Australians contract the virus, to help him predict what type of strain the country's health system may be facing.

Worst case scenario, he said, was "some millions of people being infected over a period of several weeks".

"And we think our health system is well prepared to cope with that," he said.

PHOTO: It is still uncertain exactly how heavily the health system will be impacted. (AAP: Darren England)


The governor of the Reserve Bank, Philip Lowe, says he estimates the coronavirus will wipe at least 0.5 percentage points off the March quarter GDP, based on an estimated 10 per cent fall in tourism and education exports, and the bushfires will wipe another 0.2 percentage points off.

That means there's a high probability economic growth will contract in the March quarter.

We don't even know the damage yet
Who knows what will happen in the next quarter?

Lowe says it's too early to say, but economists warn much of the economic damage that has already occurred won't show up in the national statistics until the June quarter data.

So the longer it takes the Morrison Government to release its stimulus package, the less chance it has of keeping the June quarter data in positive territory.

PHOTO: Experts are scrambling to understand how the virus will affect the economy — here and abroad. (Unsplash: Benedikt Geyer)


The political implications of that are obvious.

If Australia's economy contracts in the March and June quarters, it will record two consecutive quarters of negative growth — a technical recession.

Will Australia's record of 29 years of uninterrupted economic growth come to an end under the Morrison Government?

Wasn't the Morrison Government warning 12 months ago that Australia would fall into recession if Labor won last year's election?

Parliament isn't immune
Your questions on coronavirus answered

• Can children get coronavirus?
• What does toilet paper have to do with coronavirus?
• How long does coronavirus last on surfaces?

On top of that, there is speculation inside Parliament House that if the coronavirus outbreak becomes too bad Parliament won't be able to sit its final sitting week before the Federal Budget in May because MPs won't be able to fly to Canberra.

That means if the Government needs to pass legislation for its stimulus measures to come into effect it will have to recall Parliament for a special sitting, but the ability to do so will depend on the state of the virus nationally.

There's uncertainty everywhere.

In the last fortnight, Australia's stock market has lost well over $300 billion in value because investors have been making financial decisions based on fear, or with incomplete knowledge.

The economic benefits of stocking up
Australians have been stockpiling toilet paper, hand sanitiser and products with a long shelf-life like rice, pasta, canned food and frozen vegetables because, well, everyone else has started doing it.

On Friday, Citi's research team tried to put some order on that particular chaos by trying to figure out if the stockpiling of toilet paper and other goods will benefit some companies.

PHOTO: The rush of shoppers stockpiling supplies is having an impact on the retail sector. (Supplied: Michael McCarthy)


They found the boost to sales for supermarkets "may be helpful," especially against a backdrop of increasing earnings risk across the market.

"For Coles and the supermarket sector … we estimate the items stockpiled would be 4 to 5 per cent of the overall supermarket basket," Citi's team said.

"However, the stockpiling has been large and could be equivalent of four to eight weeks of sales for these items.

"For Coles, the uplift in 3Q20 could easily result in a similarly weak result in 4Q20, given pantries are full.

"However, we expect some benefit through operating leverage to the unexpected spike in sales.

"In addition, promotions are likely to be reduced over the next four to six weeks given potential limitations on supply."

There's a lot we don't know
On Wednesday this week, the deputy governor of the Reserve Bank, Guy Debelle, will speak at the Australian Financial Review Business Summit.

His speech is expected to have a strong focus on the coronavirus and its impact on the global economy.

It will be watched closely, given it follows last week's statement by Lowe which mentioned the coronavirus nine times in seven paragraphs.

The key takeaway from Lowe's statement? Uncertainty.

He said the coronavirus outbreak is having a significant effect on Australia's economy and it's difficult to predict how large and long-lasting the effect will be.

He said the RBA board is prepared to ease monetary policy further to support the economy.

PHOTO: The Reserve Bank slashed interest rates last week. (Getty: Saeed Khan)


Economists say that means the RBA may soon pursue unconventional monetary policy but, again, we're uncertain what it will look like.

The Westpac-Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment survey will be released on Wednesday, providing an update on how consumers are feeling.

It comes after retail sales contracted over the last two months, by 0.3 per cent in January and by 0.7 per cent in December — the first time since mid-2017 that Australian retail sales have dropped for two consecutive months.

The NAB business survey will also be released on Tuesday, and data for lending for housing in January will be released on Wednesday.

And let's not forget the Morrison Government's stimulus package. It is expected to be released imminently.

We're uncertain what it will look like, or if it will work.

Will actuaries have a better idea?

 

[eatshitndie]

most effective scenario is everyone should get it. once fear is gone everything is fine. only those who are old and have weak immune systems may die. everyone will die anyway. this is one way to reduce burden of old age and the world's population.

 

[Hypocrite-The]

most effective scenario is everyone should get it. once fear is gone everything is fine. only those who are old and have weak immune systems may die. everyone will die anyway. this is one way to reduce burden of old age and the world's population.

Well said, a very logical and common sense solution. In addition, the population will gain immunity and the ones that don't survive would have died of other crap anyway. This was how the Spanish flu and black death was over within a year and confined to the annals of history

 

[eatshitndie]

Well said, a very logical and common sense solution. In addition, the population will gain immunity and the ones that don't survive would have died of other crap anyway. This was how the Spanish flu and black death was over within a year and confined to the annals of history

who will claim to be first to get it online from just posting crap and getting replies? most likely a low iq of 69 tiong.

 

[Hypocrite-The]

WA schools ‘will be closed’: AMA

Flashpoint panel discussing COVID-19 on Channel Seven. Credit: FLASHPOINT
WA schools will have to be closed this winter, says Australian Medical Association (WA) president Andrew Miller.

The alarming statement came as WA recorded its fifth and sixth cases of COVID-19 yesterday including the state’s first instance of person-to-person transmission.

Joining three other panellists on Flashpoint last night – The West Australian and 7NEWS Perth’s current affairs panel show – Dr Miller said the global COVID-19 health crisis and the threat it posed to West Australians was anything but “business as usual”.

“It’s unprecedented ... and what causes panic is if you tell people: ‘look just carry on, it's going to be OK.’ It's not going to be OK,... this is going to be a disaster,” he said.

It's not going to be OK,... this is going to be a disaster.

The comment came in response to Premier Mark McGowan’s urge for calm.

“Yes you need to treat it very seriously but you don't need to panic,” he said, citing the Education Department’s move to ban all school-related overseas travel last week and the COVID-19 clinics opening across WA today.

“If we need to close schools, if we need to make sure we delay elective surgery to free up beds for people ... that's what our planning is for.

"We are taking this matter very seriously. The Government is not underestimating this crisis.”

"We have worked constructively with the Commonwealth Government on initiatives both health and to support the economy ... (and) we look to set up more (COVID clinics) across the regions over the future.”

Responding to the share market slide yesterday and the jobs under threat across a number of industries, the Premier said he was very worried about WA’s international trading economy and asked all West Aussies to “holiday at home” and support local businesses.

“Don’t stop doing things that support our economy,” he said.


Australian Medical Association WA president Andrew Miller. Credit: Michael Wilson/The West Australian
Deputy chief health officer Robyn Lawrence implored West Australians travelling overseas not to “jump on a plane and come home” if they became sick.

“Seek the medical advice of the country you're in and travel home safely when it’s safe to do so. Infecting other people is not a good outcome here,” she said.

"Risk in WA currently is low if you don't meet that criteria, but we are preparing for the impact to hit WA consistent with the rest of the world.”

Perth Airport Chairman and former Fortescue Metals Group boss Nev Power said yesterday’s bloodbath on the markets was “an overreaction” in anticipation of the worst possible scenario.He said people needed to be practical and reasonable while being ready to “respond quickly”.

"Panicking and selling off is not the way to do that. The danger (with that) is we create a bigger issue that what the virus was going to be,” Mr Power said.

He also reassured audiences Perth Airport would remain open amid the global COVID-19 outbreak.

"We'll be continuing to operate, however, at the same time we're putting all of the procedures in place to make sure that the risk to our staff is minimised and also the risk to travelling public, and we've got procedures in place to recover if there is any identified outbreaks,” he said.

Perth Airport yesterday revealed it had been approached by the resources sector to provide a space for medical screening equipment, such as heat sensors, to be used on FIFO workers heading to work.

"On the mine sites right now, procedures are being continually updated to make sure that every attempt is made to isolate people before they come to site and identify people with symptoms,” Mr Power said.

"Ironically on a mine site we've got good capability to isolate people … it's relatively easy actually … and we also have paramedical and medical staff on site.”

A Perth Airport spokesperson added that it was ready to assist resource sector companies should they decide to implement a screening process for their FIFO workers.


Perth Airport chairman and former FMG chief executive Nev Power. Credit: Michael Wilson/The West Australian
"This assistance would be in the form of provision of terminal space where the screening could be conducted. We will continue to liaise closely with the resources sector as this issue evolves,” they said.

Dr Miller claimed the images of people stockpiling on toilet paper and other products coarsing through the media was not an example of panic buying but of people “being sensible”.

"There's always a couple of bogans having a fist fight at an IGA somewhere,” he said, adding he had made “sensible provisions for a few weeks for his family” when asked if he had stocked up on loo paper.

"Of course you're going to stock up for a bit. There's 50 million people in China who have been locked down for six weeks, are you saying that can't happen here?

"It's not a racist virus, it affects everybody.”

But leading cardiologist Ross Walker said the response to coronavirus was over the top, calling it “almost like a viral Y2K”.

He pointed out that influenza affected 250,000-600,000 people annually and had killed 10,000 people in the US since January 1.

"That's much more than the coronavirus,” Dr Walker said, claiming that the virus was likely to die off in the coming months as the northern hemisphere heated up.

It prompted Dr Miller to hit back, calling Dr Walker a mere “talking head” anyone could find when looking for an opinion that differed from the experts or “who thinks they know about this when the world has never seen this before”.

"The Italians are not stupid people, the Chinese are not stupid people, neither are the South Koreans, and the mortality rates we're seeing in the elderly population … Look I hope he's right and someone can throw a cream pie at me after this, but all the evidence we have and the scientific consensus is that this is very real,” he said.

"This is terrifying in an economic sense.”

 

[Hypocrite-The]

Coronavirus response ‘a shambles’: Australian doctors and patients complain of confusing processes | Coronavirus outbreak

Hospitals including Royal Melbourne and Royal Prince Alfred in Sydney have seen long queues as people wait to be tested for coronavirus. Photograph: David Crosling/AAP
Conflicting advice, a lack of testing kits and delays on hotlines are testing the health system

Tue 10 Mar 2020 02.54 EDT
Doctors and patients have criticised the “confusing” and haphazard process for accessing tests for the coronavirus, even as health authorities vowed to improve communication in the face of an ever-increasing number of confirmed cases in Australia.

But doctors say that message has threatened to inundate a health system grappling with equipment shortages while it comes to grips with an escalating public health emergency, while some patients say the process for accessing tests remains confusing.

One doctor from Sydney’s eastern suburbs said that the “widespread view” among his colleagues was that the response to the virus was “a shambles” with “multiple layers of conflicting advice”.

The doctor, who wished to remain anonymous, said Hunt’s comments had come in a context where GPs were grappling with shortages of basic equipment such as hand sanitiser, while some pathology labs in the city were running low on testing kits.

“I had two patients on Monday who I triaged over the phone, for which we receive no fee, and followed what I believed to be protocol and sent both of those patients to a designated private pathology lab that was doing samples last we heard,” he said.

“They were not sick enough to go to the hospital and we don’t want to overload the hospital system, but we still need to know whether these people were OK. That was about 10am. By 10.20am we got a call to say the first lab was no longer doing the tests as they’d run out the kits. The second one wasn’t even answering the phone and the third was the same.”

Other medical agencies have been overrun by demand; on Tuesday the Victorian ambulance service said its dedicated coronavirus hotline had been “experiencing system issues due to extraordinary call volumes”, while videos on social media showed long lines around the block at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

Lines of patients lining up for COVID-19 testing now extending half a block at @TheRMH. pic.twitter.com/T8X1nrtPSn

It was a similar story in Sydney on Monday, where patients waited hours to be tested for the virus at the Royal Prince Alfred hospital.

One woman who tried to get tested after coming down with flu-like symptoms on Sunday said that after being turned away by her local GP clinic she tried to contact the New South Wales public health unit but that the call went to voicemail.

“I decided to wait until Monday morning and try again after 9am. My next attempt went to another recorded message indicating that there were too many calls coming through and to try again later,” she told Guardian Australia.

After spending more than 20 minutes on hold she tried her GP again, who suggested she visit RPA, but said when she arrived at the testing clinic the queue was “spilling out the door”.

“Most people were wearing masks, but the variety of shapes and sizes suggested they had brought their own,” she said.

“I asked the man at the back of the queue if the clinic gave him his mask. It hadn’t – and I didn’t have one. I was starting to wonder if this was the best place to be considering I might only have a cold.”

In a statement, a spokeswoman from the NSW health department blamed delays on Monday on the opening of a larger testing clinic to cope with increasing demand, saying there had been “a short transition period where people were queuing while staff were opening the new space”.

She said that while treatment times on Monday had been two to three hours, the previous clinic had been less than an hour.

“So we expect today’s times will reduce as the processes get bedded down,” she said.

She said that people were required to use hand sanitiser and were given a face mask.

“They then fill in a registration form and are asked to take a seat in a designated area outside the clinic. All chairs within the clinic and in the designated waiting area outside the clinic are spaced a metre apart, to reduce the risk of transmission,” the spokeswoman said.

“When seen by a clinician inside the clinic, the patient has observations taken, such as temperature checks etc, and is then swabbed, if required. Patients who have been swabbed are then given packs of masks and sanitiser and are required to self-isolate at home pending the results.”

On Tuesday Hunt acknowledged the commonwealth advice line had faced “additional pressure” over the weekend due to an influx of calls, while Australia’s chief medical officer Brendan Murphy sought to clarify questions around who should or should not present for testing for the virus.

“Our focus at the moment is testing people who are returned travellers who have acute respiratory symptoms, cough sore throat and the like, and contacts of confirmed cases,” Murphy said.

“At the moment we are not recommending that general members of the community with acute respiratory symptoms – colds, flu, and the like – be tested.”

Brisbane GP Jared Dart said that while doctors were able to assess patients, the highly contagious nature of the virus meant the process of evaluating patients was time and resource intensive. Dart said has spent about $7,000 more than average on supplies in February.

“Ideally you want to treat suspected cases with a high degree of caution. A separate consulting room, separate waiting room, appropriate PPE [personal protective equipment] for staff and masks for patients. That makes the workflow for clinics very hard,” he said.

Dart said that in order to conduct consultations with patients, he’d had to ask some of the allied health services at his clinic to vacate, as well as conducting tele-health consults which are not covered by the medicare rebate.

“In Queensland we’re lucky that the private pathology companies are doing the tests, which isn’t the same everywhere,” he said.

“We’re being asked to take in undifferentiated, potentially risky cases to assess and if anything happens our confidentiality is not protected and potentially our clinic shuts for two weeks,” Dart said.

“If the clinic closes I won’t be getting an income as a GP and I won’t be getting one as a business owner but I still have to pay rent and my staff. We’re in a very, very difficult position being asked to do the important public health work which we definitely want to do for our community and our patients but it doesn’t feel as though we’re being supported to do that.”

Topics

 

[Hypocrite-The]

Coronavirus travel restrictions leaves Australians struggling to find a way back home - ABC News

Gold Coast nurse Kate Kitto (left) and her friend Genevieve Pyne are stranded in Peru.(Supplied: Kate Kitto)
Share
A Gold Coast nurse is among those Australian travellers stranded overseas as people scramble to book flights and countries shut their borders due to the ongoing coronavirus threat.
Key points:

• DFAT has warned Australian travellers they should return home as soon as possible
• Gold Coast nurse Kate Kitto and friend Genevieve Pyne are stuck inside a hotel room in Lima
• Brisbane man Matt Gharakhanian was stuck in Morocco but has made it to London

Travellers described chaotic scenes at airports with tourists forced to queue for hours, many missing out on flights or forced to buy plane tickets for thousands of dollars.
DFAT has warned Australian travellers they may not be able to return home at a later stage, with more countries closing their borders due to the rapid spread of coronavirus.
Gold Coast nurse Kate Kitto and her Brisbane friend Genevieve Pyne arrived in Peru last week and had planned on a two-month trip taking in Bolivia, Brazil and Chile.
Ms Kitto said they were now stuck in a hotel room in the Miraflores district of Lima after Peru closed its borders.
She said they could not secure a flight back to Australia.
"We've been in lockdown since midnight on Tuesday — we were given 24 hours to leave [the country] and we couldn't make it out," she said.
"As soon as we found out, we were about four hours away in Paracas and we paid a man to take us to the airport as quick as he could.
"We got to the airport — it was chaos — we tried to wait in lines that were hours long.
"Until four o'clock in the morning we were trying to book flights on our phone but everything was booked out.
"There were a few flights that were about $8,000 to get home, which were all booking out, so we went and stayed in a hotel for a few hours to get some sleep."
'It's been a bit worrying'
Ms Kitto said they went back to the airport but were told by authorities to get a hotel and stay in lockdown for a 14-day quarantine period.
She said there was also a 30-day minimum travel ban in Peru with no planes, buses or taxis operating.
"There's an Australian Embassy in Lima and we were told that [had] shut down on March 15 so we haven't been able to receive any support from there," she said.
"We have tried to contact the Embassy in Australia and we've only been given generic advice.
"It's been a bit worrying because we're uncertain of when we can get out.
"We haven't much information from the Department of Foreign Affairs, we haven't received any information from the Government apart from the Smart Traveller advice."
'No help' from Australian embassy
Brisbane man Matt Gharakhanian was stuck in Morocco at Marrakech Menara Airport earlier this week after his flight to London was cancelled and he struggled to book another.
The 33-year-old had since managed to secure one of the last easyJet flights to London.
"While waiting in a line, an airport staff member came up to me and asked if I wanted to go to Berlin, promising I can get to London that way," he said.
"I got on and after I landed, the easyJet staff said that was their last flight out from Marrakech to Europe.
"It was sad because I saw a couple of spare seats, and the air hostess said their earlier flights were near empty, but nobody was being put on them."

Matt Gharakhanian has made it to London Stansted Airport.(Supplied: Matt Gharakhanian)
Mr Gharakhanian said the process had left him exhausted and stressed and there was no help from the Australian embassy in Morocco.
"Australians definitely will find it hard — the embassy tells them to book flights but even if you do, the flights will most likely just get cancelled," he said.
"They're told different things by different airport staff. I was told that some were denied boarding and others given preference.
"It was chaos when I left — some people were shoving others in the hopes of getting a ticket.
"The embassy did nothing further and didn't communicate anything further, so we were just left not knowing what to do."

Travellers stranded at London Stansted Airport sleeping on the concourse.(Supplied: Matt Gharakhanian)
Mr Gharakhanian said he was booked to fly to Brisbane via Dubai, but was worried it could be cancelled.
"I definitely feel anxious — I'm relieved but at the same time I know it's not over," he said.
"I'm just worried I could be trapped in Dubai on the way home but I know I need to do whatever it takes to get back.
"I am constantly checking the flight status and half expecting and fearing I'll see the word 'cancelled'.
"I'm also just happy I finally got out of Morocco, and I hope everyone else can get out too."
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has been contacted for comment.

Dr Norman Swan explains coronavirus terminology
Posted 1h

 

[Hypocrite-The]

The tech execs who don't agree with 'soul-stealing' coronavirus safety measures
‘If we wish to maintain our productivity, we need to continue working in [our] offices,’ one CEO told his staff in an email
Thu 19 Mar 2020 04.02 AEDT
Last modified on Thu 19 Mar 2020 04.15 AEDT
145

A lone ‘Googler’ eats lunch at the internet company’s main campus in Mountain View, California. Photograph: Glenn Chapman/AFP via Getty Images
Michael Saylor does not often send all-staff emails to the more than 2,000 employees at Microstrategy, a business intelligence firm headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia. So the chief executive’s 3,000-word missive on Monday afternoon with the subject line My Thoughts on Covid-19 got his employees’ attention.
Advertisement
ADVERTISEMENT
CONTENT RESUMES ON SCROLL
“It is soul-stealing and debilliating [sic] to embrace the notion of social distancing & economic hibernation,” Saylor wrote in an impassioned argument against adopting the aggressive responses to the coronavirus pandemic that public health authorities are advising. “If we wish to maintain our productivity, we need to continue working in [our] offices.”

As companies around the world adjust to the reality of the coronavirus pandemic, including by allowing their employees to work from home in compliance with the national guidelines of many governments, some executives are attempting to continue doing business as usual. The trend is notable in the tech industry, where computer-based work can generally be performed from anywhere, but where the culture has often rewarded innovative and “disruptive” leaders who buck conventional wisdom.
Saylor argued that the “economic damage” of social distancing and quarantines was greater than “the theoretical benefit of slowing down a virus” and suggested that it would make more sense to “quarantine the 40 million elderly retired, immune compromised people who no longer need to work or get educated”.
“In the absolutely worse case, the overall life expectancy worldwide would click down by a few weeks,” he added. “Instead of 79.60 years to live we would have 79.45 years to live. 1 out of 500 people will pass on a bit sooner, or not, or die from a celebrated disease instead of just old age,” he added. “We should continue to do our work, serve our customers, educate our children, cultivate our health, pursue our hobbies, worship our gods, enjoy our sports, cherish our friends, listen to our music, eat, drink, & be merry.”
Microstrategy did not respond to numerous requests for comment.
Saylor is not alone among technology executives chafing against the pressure to abide by recommendations from public health officials.
Elon Musk, billionaire chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, prompted considerable consternation when he tweeted, “The coronavirus panic is dumb” to his 32.3 million followers on 6 March. Despite widespread criticism of his message, which flew in the face of public health efforts to convince the general population to take the spread of the virus seriously, Musk has continued to downplay the threat.
“As a basis for comparison, the risk of death from C19 is *vastly* less than the risk of death from driving your car home,” Musk wrote in an email to SpaceX employees, according to BuzzFeed News. “There are about 36 thousand automotive deaths per deaths [sic], as compared to 36 so far this year for C19.”
On Tuesday, thousands of factory workers at Tesla’s plant in the San Francisco Bay area reported to work, despite a “shelter-in-place” order that was supposed to shutter all “non-essential” businesses. Musk told factory employees to stay home “if you feel the slightest bit ill or even uncomfortable”, the Los Angeles Times reported. By Tuesday afternoon, the local sheriff’s office announced that Tesla was not an essential business and could only maintain “minimum basic operations”.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request from the Guardian for a comment.
Another billionaire, venture capitalist Tim Draper, tweeted on 14 March, “The fear is far worse than the virus. The governments have it wrong. Stay open for business. If not, so many more people will die from a crashing economy than from this virus.”

Elon Musk (@elonmusk)
Fear is the mind-killer

Draper is known for eccentric and contrarian views; he supported a ballot initiative in California that aimed to divide the state into six smaller states and continued to voice support for the disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes long after she was charged with fraud.
On Monday, Draper drew considerable criticism for tweeting that he was going ahead with a South by Southwest (SXSW) event for his “Draper Startup House” in Austin, Texas, despite the fact that the festival was cancelled by city officials. He subsequently apologized for his “timing” and said he supports a “2-week lockdown”.
Draper did not immediately respond to the Guardian’s request for a comment.
One Silicon Valley leader who is attempting to push companies in the other direction is David Heinemeier Hansson, the creator of Ruby on Rails and co-founder of Basecamp. Hansson has been using his Twitter account to “name ’n’ shame” tech employers who are not allowing employees to work remotely, going so far as to set up a dedicated email for employees to submit anonymous reports.
Hansson has tweeted out the names of dozens of companies chastising them for not allowing employees to work remotely, and told the Guardian that he has “hundreds” more reports that he is still reviewing. He has said he will delete tweets if a company changes its stance.
“If you’re gathering people in the office who could work from home, you simply have no excuse and you will eventually have blood on your hands,” Hansson said. “There’s a lot of people in Silicon Valley who fancy themselves as contrarians as a default stance. They think it means you’re not with the herd, you’re special. In my opinion, every tech company that has people working in the office, they’re not contrarian, they’re stupid and they’re dangerous.”
By Tuesday afternoon, Hansson had tweeted a screenshot of the Microstrategy CEO’s email, though the excerpt he highlighted did not include Saylor’s peculiar views on public health.
“The current policies represent a threat to our civil liberties, economic liberties, & physical/mental health that far exceeds the theoretical benefit of slowing down a virus,” Saylor wrote. “They will bankrupt small and large businesses, eliminate jobs, destroy assets, impoverish multitudes. If our interest is the public health, then depriving the entire population of education, jobs, sports, recreation, entertainment, assets, exercise, bars, restaurants, museums, religious ceremony, group celebrations is certainly unhealthy to them.”
An employee of Microstrategy, who spoke to the Guardian under condition of anonymity, said that many employees were working from home on Tuesday despite Saylor’s email. The email from Saylor had been “unexpected”, the employee said. “Everyone is roughly on the same page that we didn’t expect the feelings of the CEO to be if people die then it will only bring down the overall life expectancy by a small number.”
Since you’re here...
… we’re asking readers like you to make a contribution in support of the Guardian’s open, independent journalism. At extraordinary times like these, anxiety and uncertainty abound. But we aim to provide reassurance with regularly-updated, properly-sourced, accurate information, to help you make decisions about your life, health and security. Misinformation and rumours abound, and they are spreading alarm. But our reporting teams around the world are committed to finding out the facts, calmly and rationally.
Because we believe Guardian journalism is an important source of clear and trusted information, we have always kept it open to everyone, regardless of where they live or what they can afford to pay. This would not be possible without the generosity of our growing band of supporters in more than 180 countries, who give so that everyone can read.
You’ve read 10 articles in the last four months. More people than ever are deciding that it's only fair to underwrite regular usage of our site with a contribution. This enables us to maintain our independence from external pressures, meaning that we can set our own agenda and voice our own opinions. Guardian journalism is free from commercial and political bias – never influenced by billionaire owners or shareholders. This makes us different. It means we can challenge the powerful without fear and give a voice to those less heard.
We need your support so we can keep delivering quality journalism that’s open and independent... and that is here for the long term. Every reader contribution, however big or small, is so valuable. Support the Guardian from as little as $1 – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.

 

[Leongsam]

The tech execs who don't agree with 'soul-stealing' coronavirus safety measures
‘If we wish to maintain our productivity, we need to continue working in [our] offices,’ one CEO told his staff in an email
Thu 19 Mar 2020 04.02 AEDT
Last modified on Thu 19 Mar 2020 04.15 AEDT
145

A lone ‘Googler’ eats lunch at the internet company’s main campus in Mountain View, California. Photograph: Glenn Chapman/AFP via Getty Images
Michael Saylor does not often send all-staff emails to the more than 2,000 employees at Microstrategy, a business intelligence firm headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia. So the chief executive’s 3,000-word missive on Monday afternoon with the subject line My Thoughts on Covid-19 got his employees’ attention.
Advertisement
ADVERTISEMENT
CONTENT RESUMES ON SCROLL
“It is soul-stealing and debilliating [sic] to embrace the notion of social distancing & economic hibernation,” Saylor wrote in an impassioned argument against adopting the aggressive responses to the coronavirus pandemic that public health authorities are advising. “If we wish to maintain our productivity, we need to continue working in [our] offices.”

As companies around the world adjust to the reality of the coronavirus pandemic, including by allowing their employees to work from home in compliance with the national guidelines of many governments, some executives are attempting to continue doing business as usual. The trend is notable in the tech industry, where computer-based work can generally be performed from anywhere, but where the culture has often rewarded innovative and “disruptive” leaders who buck conventional wisdom.
Saylor argued that the “economic damage” of social distancing and quarantines was greater than “the theoretical benefit of slowing down a virus” and suggested that it would make more sense to “quarantine the 40 million elderly retired, immune compromised people who no longer need to work or get educated”.
“In the absolutely worse case, the overall life expectancy worldwide would click down by a few weeks,” he added. “Instead of 79.60 years to live we would have 79.45 years to live. 1 out of 500 people will pass on a bit sooner, or not, or die from a celebrated disease instead of just old age,” he added. “We should continue to do our work, serve our customers, educate our children, cultivate our health, pursue our hobbies, worship our gods, enjoy our sports, cherish our friends, listen to our music, eat, drink, & be merry.”
Microstrategy did not respond to numerous requests for comment.
Saylor is not alone among technology executives chafing against the pressure to abide by recommendations from public health officials.
Elon Musk, billionaire chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, prompted considerable consternation when he tweeted, “The coronavirus panic is dumb” to his 32.3 million followers on 6 March. Despite widespread criticism of his message, which flew in the face of public health efforts to convince the general population to take the spread of the virus seriously, Musk has continued to downplay the threat.
“As a basis for comparison, the risk of death from C19 is *vastly* less than the risk of death from driving your car home,” Musk wrote in an email to SpaceX employees, according to BuzzFeed News. “There are about 36 thousand automotive deaths per deaths [sic], as compared to 36 so far this year for C19.”
On Tuesday, thousands of factory workers at Tesla’s plant in the San Francisco Bay area reported to work, despite a “shelter-in-place” order that was supposed to shutter all “non-essential” businesses. Musk told factory employees to stay home “if you feel the slightest bit ill or even uncomfortable”, the Los Angeles Times reported. By Tuesday afternoon, the local sheriff’s office announced that Tesla was not an essential business and could only maintain “minimum basic operations”.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request from the Guardian for a comment.
Another billionaire, venture capitalist Tim Draper, tweeted on 14 March, “The fear is far worse than the virus. The governments have it wrong. Stay open for business. If not, so many more people will die from a crashing economy than from this virus.”

Draper is known for eccentric and contrarian views; he supported a ballot initiative in California that aimed to divide the state into six smaller states and continued to voice support for the disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes long after she was charged with fraud.
On Monday, Draper drew considerable criticism for tweeting that he was going ahead with a South by Southwest (SXSW) event for his “Draper Startup House” in Austin, Texas, despite the fact that the festival was cancelled by city officials. He subsequently apologized for his “timing” and said he supports a “2-week lockdown”.
Draper did not immediately respond to the Guardian’s request for a comment.
One Silicon Valley leader who is attempting to push companies in the other direction is David Heinemeier Hansson, the creator of Ruby on Rails and co-founder of Basecamp. Hansson has been using his Twitter account to “name ’n’ shame” tech employers who are not allowing employees to work remotely, going so far as to set up a dedicated email for employees to submit anonymous reports.
Hansson has tweeted out the names of dozens of companies chastising them for not allowing employees to work remotely, and told the Guardian that he has “hundreds” more reports that he is still reviewing. He has said he will delete tweets if a company changes its stance.
“If you’re gathering people in the office who could work from home, you simply have no excuse and you will eventually have blood on your hands,” Hansson said. “There’s a lot of people in Silicon Valley who fancy themselves as contrarians as a default stance. They think it means you’re not with the herd, you’re special. In my opinion, every tech company that has people working in the office, they’re not contrarian, they’re stupid and they’re dangerous.”
By Tuesday afternoon, Hansson had tweeted a screenshot of the Microstrategy CEO’s email, though the excerpt he highlighted did not include Saylor’s peculiar views on public health.
“The current policies represent a threat to our civil liberties, economic liberties, & physical/mental health that far exceeds the theoretical benefit of slowing down a virus,” Saylor wrote. “They will bankrupt small and large businesses, eliminate jobs, destroy assets, impoverish multitudes. If our interest is the public health, then depriving the entire population of education, jobs, sports, recreation, entertainment, assets, exercise, bars, restaurants, museums, religious ceremony, group celebrations is certainly unhealthy to them.”
An employee of Microstrategy, who spoke to the Guardian under condition of anonymity, said that many employees were working from home on Tuesday despite Saylor’s email. The email from Saylor had been “unexpected”, the employee said. “Everyone is roughly on the same page that we didn’t expect the feelings of the CEO to be if people die then it will only bring down the overall life expectancy by a small number.”
Since you’re here...
… we’re asking readers like you to make a contribution in support of the Guardian’s open, independent journalism. At extraordinary times like these, anxiety and uncertainty abound. But we aim to provide reassurance with regularly-updated, properly-sourced, accurate information, to help you make decisions about your life, health and security. Misinformation and rumours abound, and they are spreading alarm. But our reporting teams around the world are committed to finding out the facts, calmly and rationally.
Because we believe Guardian journalism is an important source of clear and trusted information, we have always kept it open to everyone, regardless of where they live or what they can afford to pay. This would not be possible without the generosity of our growing band of supporters in more than 180 countries, who give so that everyone can read.
You’ve read 10 articles in the last four months. More people than ever are deciding that it's only fair to underwrite regular usage of our site with a contribution. This enables us to maintain our independence from external pressures, meaning that we can set our own agenda and voice our own opinions. Guardian journalism is free from commercial and political bias – never influenced by billionaire owners or shareholders. This makes us different. It means we can challenge the powerful without fear and give a voice to those less heard.
We need your support so we can keep delivering quality journalism that’s open and independent... and that is here for the long term. Every reader contribution, however big or small, is so valuable. Support the Guardian from as little as $1 – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.

It takes a certain level of intelligence in order to be able to dissect and respond to issues in a logical manner instead of an emotive or ideologically driven one.

These technology leaders have what it takes, Elon Musk obviously has it since he too is calling this lockdown as a ridiculous measure given the mild symptoms that most experience.

And of course there's me.... your resident genius.

 

[Hypocrite-The]

It takes a certain level of intelligence in order to be able to dissect and respond to issues in a logical manner instead of an emotive or ideologically driven one.

These technology leaders have what it takes, Elon Musk obviously has it since he too is calling this lockdown as a ridiculous measure given the mild symptoms that most experience.

And of course there's me.... your resident genius.

Yes AMDK and even the blackies have more common sense.... but why are they soo fugly?