Yes, yes, it is another post about the coronavirus. But let us reflect on just how incredible some of the things that we have seen just in the past few days really have been. Obviously, we have some truly unbelievable things in the news before. Chernobyl in 1986. Who could forget the fall of the Berlin Wall, or the collapse of the Soviet Union? Mandela walking out of jail, and heading towards leading a multiracial democracy in South Africa. The fears of Y2K that never came to anything. The 9/11 attacks. The massive hurricanes that have just devastated parts of North America. The tsunami of 2004. The Japanese tsunami that led to Fukushima. The Arab Uprising. Donald Trump stunning the world by winning the White House in 2016. And quite a few things that I was too young to remember, or am simply forgetting right now, as this list was just off the top of my head.
But have we ever seen anything quite like this?
I mentioned this yesterday, and perhaps it sounded like a joke, although I was actually serious: some of the fear, which some are suggesting may be an overreaction, are probably influenced by the onslaught of books and stories and movies and television shows that revolve around some kind of doomsday scenarios. No, this is not the zombie apocalypse, nor is it a nuclear war, or some kind of massive meteor hurtling itself towards Earth, on a collision course with a soon to be lifeless planet.
What it is, though, is a virus. A scary one, one that seems destined to grow seriously worse.
There were a lot of headlines from it already, some of which I covered in yesterday’s post.
Obviously, the news headlines have not slowed down any. So, let’s take a look at some of the latest news from the virus.
The Federal Reserve is vowing to invest $1.5 trillion to prevent what they termed as “unusual disruptions” hurting the stock market, and the economy more generally.
Meanwhile, the stock market continues to crash, with the Dow plunging 2,300 points yesterday, which is a record. It is a record at least in terms of points, true, but it ranks behind three other days in terms of net loss. There was greater net loss of -22.61 percent for “Black Monday back on October 19, 1987. There were two consecutive days of stack market disaster on October 28 – 29, 1929, which began the Great Depression. The 28th had a net loss of -12.82, and the 29th had a net loss of -11.73. Yesterday ranks behind those three days, with a net loss of -9.99. The next day on the list was also in 1929, this time on November 6th, when the net loss was -9.92.
Obviously, Trump is no longer bragging about the stock market numbers anymore. One news headline from Markets Insider has a headline that reveals the extent of the recent losses. Take a look at this headline by Ben Winck of Markets Business Insider:
The US stock market has now wiped out the entire $11.5 trillion of value it gained since Trump's 2016 election victory
Wow!
Yet despite the bad news with the economy, Trump is praising his administration’s handling of the coronavirus, even though the rest of the country, and indeed the rest of the world, is condemning his handling of it. After all, he claimed that it was a hoax, suggested that there were only 15 cases in the United States, and that that number would be closer to zero within a couple of weeks, claimed that the virus would go away with the warmer weather coming in the spring (with absolutely no evidence that this is true), and finally, claimed that this virus would basically simply go away on it’s own. One day, just like that, it would cease to be a problem.
Well, maybe that will happen. But if it does, it will not be because of Donald Trump’s leadership or decisive action. He has undermined the seriousness of this virus from the first. And as it turns out, that might work against him in a potentially very serious manner, as he had a meeting with Brazilian leaders, one of whom has tested positive for the coronavirus. Trump himself was pictured shaking hands with that Brazilian official just days ago, although it seems that Trump himself has not been tested, and apparently either has no plans to get tested, or has no plans to make those test results public.
Moving away from Trump and the stock market, schools are closing everywhere, as some people in those schools have either self-quarantined or outright have been infected. Here in New Jersey, all schools in both Bergen and Passaic counties will have a day today, before closing for two weeks. My son is going to school in a Passaic county school, and so this story hit close to home.
The NBA and NHL have suspended their seasons, but now they are joined by the MLS and the MLB, where at least for now, the rest of the preseason, and the first two weeks of the regular season, have been postponed. The NCAA outright cancelled it's iconic March Madness tournament. No shocking upsets, nor any new champion crowned.
Pretty much any gathering numbering beyond 500 has been delayed or cancelled, including major concerts, as well as Broadway and Off Broadway shows. I was supposed to go to a Pearl Jam concert in Ottawa next Friday night, but the first leg of their upcoming tour has been delayed. There are a number of other artists and performers who had to do the same.
And there is apparently no toilet paper to be found in store shelves anymore, as people have been hording toilet paper.
The number of known cases, as well as the number of deaths from the virus, keep growing, here in the United States, as well as in the rest of the world.
In Ohio, officials there have suggested that it is entirely possible that up to one percent of the population there may have contracted the virus. That might not sound like a lot, but when you do the math, that is over 100,000 people! Again, that is just in one state, and it is not the state with anywhere near the most documented cases or deaths.
Again, we have never seen anything quite like this. A lot of people are working from home, and this is being actively encouraged by employers, who recognize the dangers. After all, China shut down whole cities entirely in an effort to try to contain the virus, and with some measure of success. Currently, Italy is trying to do the same, and there are virtually no stores or anything open right now in Italy.
There are experts who are suggesting that the United States is on track to have the kind of outbreak that Italy had.
Clearly, things might get worse before they get better.
Perusing through my Facebook page, I noticed that there are still some who remain skeptical about the coronavirus, and who are still claiming that it is vastly overblown, that people are overreacting. Maybe, but this is the most serious virus in our lives, it seems safe to say. And these people are, in every case that I saw, Trump supporters.
What a shock, I know. Some of them even had the audacity to praise his leadership and claim that his strong, bold action helped to prevent this current crisis from being worse.
Sure. Right.
In any case, it seems like this story will be going on and on for quite a while now.
I will end with a little bit of levity and humor, as I ran into something that was, in fact, rather humorous and timely, and so it seemed like a good idea to share it here:
The Caffeinated Therapist @bellabee13
Schools close, Tom Hanks, trouble in the big banks, no vaccine, quarantine, no more toilet paper seen.
Travel ban, Weinstein, panic COVID-19, NBA, gone away, what else do I have to sayyyyyy
Quote Tweet
This was in response to this:
Matt Warburton @MCWarburton · Mar 12 Today was like if “we didn’t start the fire” was a day.
12:29 AM · Mar 12, 2020·Twitter Web App
The US stock market has now wiped out the entire $11.5 trillion of value it gained since Trump's 2016 election victory by Ben Winck, Mar. 12, 2020:
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