Knock on effect of the virus

[Kuya John]

Well here is one of the knock on effects that I imagined could happen, another is when money can't buy your way out of things, it becomes a dog eat dog situation. I am not panicked by the situation itself, more worried that many will see severe shortages in all things and all manner of attitude from our fellow humans.

memo to myself..... buy a Stay Calm and remember your British T shirt

[Kuya John]

Maybe Powers that be are more prepared than I thought......

UK supermarkets draw up plan to 'feed the nation' as coronavirus spreads

[Dave Hounddriver]

3 hours ago, Kuya John said:

Maybe Powers that be are more prepared than I thought

Yep, they saw this years ago and even withdrew from the European Union so they could block out all the sick people who wanted refuge in the UK 

[earthdome]

The US Federal Reserve (Central Bank) started dropping the discount rate (the interest rate they charge to member banks) last summer, a total of 0.5%. Today they announced they were dropping it another 0.5% and may drop it up to another 0.75% before the end of this year. The Federal Reserve does this to try and spur economic growth. This move shows that they are very concerned about the economic impact of the corona virus and that they were generally concerned about the US economy slowing down starting last summer. The US stock market dropped almost 800 points today because of that news.

 

[RBM]

On 3/2/2020 at 5:27 PM, fillipino_wannabe said:

Quite amazing considering China & Korea are rank 1 & 2 for tourists here with direct flights from Wuhan aswell.

Agree here, simply put its not possible IMHO that Philippines remains relatively unaffected,  somethings just not rite

We traved recently using  local ferries, there were zero tempature test  done, I understand some Islands here are testing how ever have not seen it. Let's hope it's not prevalent here but some how I doubt. 

[Dave Hounddriver]

1 hour ago, RBM said:

simply put its not possible IMHO that Philippines remains relatively unaffected

Improbable, but not impossible.  Something in the Philippine climate could be inhibiting the spread.  Perhaps just the right amount of heat and humidity to make an environment that is inhospitable to this virus.  Just a suggestion as it is indeed strange that the Philippines is still relatively unaffected.

[GeoffH]

25 minutes ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

Perhaps just the right amount of heat and humidity to make an environment that is inhospitable to this virus. 

Corona viruses don't like heat when outside of a host body that is true, it reduces the time the virus is viable a lot.

But I'd have thought that would also apply to Singapore and South Korea.   So if climate and temperature are such a strong mitigating factor then why are those two tropical countries hot spots for the Virus but the Philippines is not?

My guess (and that's all it is) is that the stronger medical regimes in Singapore and South Korea enable more testing and are detecting more infected individuals and that is reflected in the number of confirmed cases.

 

Edited March 4, 2020 by GeoffH

[hk blues]

17 minutes ago, GeoffH said:

But I'd have thought that would also apply to Singapore and South Korea.   So if climate and temperature are such a strong mitigating factor then why are those two tropical countries hot spots for the Virus but the Philippines is not?

My guess (and that's all it is) is that the stronger medical regimes in Singapore and South Korea enable more testing and are detecting more infected individuals and that is reflected in the number of confirmed cases.

 

I agree that the more testing your carry out, the more cases you are likely to discover so this may partly explain the numbers in Singapore and South Korea are higher than here.  As for the weather, isn't South Korea chilly at this time of year?  Singapore may be anomalous - there are still relatively few numbers and it is the case, i believe, that 3 clusters are responsible for the majority of cases there.  

[GeoffH]

21 minutes ago, hk blues said:

I agree that the more testing your carry out, the more cases you are likely to discover so this may partly explain the numbers in Singapore and South Korea are higher than here.  As for the weather, isn't South Korea chilly at this time of year?  Singapore may be anomalous - there are still relatively few numbers and it is the case, i believe, that 3 clusters are responsible for the majority of cases there.  

You are correct about South Korea, I didn't realize it was quite that cool this time of the year.  Singapore... I think we'll have to wait and see.

But if it is like other seasonal corona viruses then you may be correct and a warm moist climate like the Philippines could be the best place to ride out the infection.

[hk blues]

56 minutes ago, GeoffH said:

You are correct about South Korea, I didn't realize it was quite that cool this time of the year.  Singapore... I think we'll have to wait and see.

But if it is like other seasonal corona viruses then you may be correct and a warm moist climate like the Philippines could be the best place to ride out the infection.

I see also that Africa only has 3 cases - 1.2 billion people!  I guess that is a good comparitor to the Philippines in many ways (climate/healthcare/state of development etc etc) so it's not so hard to see why there are only 3 cases reported here.