Workers are stuck in their hometowns. Officials want detailed health plans before factories or offices can reopen. Assembly lines that make General Motors cars and Apple iPhones are standing silent.
More than two weeks after China locked down a major city to stop a dangerous viral outbreak, one of the world’s largest economies remains largely idle. Much of the country was supposed to have reopened by now, but its empty streets, quiet factories and legions of inactive workers suggest that weeks or months could pass before this vital motor of global growth is humming again.
The global economy could suffer the longer China stays in low gear. It has been hampered by both the outbreak and its own containment efforts, a process that has cut off workers from their jobs and factories from their raw materials. The result is a slowdown that is already slashing traffic along the world’s shipping lines and leading to forecasts of a sharp fall in production of everything from cars to smartphones.
“It’s like Europe in medieval times,” said Jörg Wuttke, the president of the European Chamber of Commerce in China, “where each city has its checks and crosschecks.”
(NYT)
Oh my God, stop. This is a COMPLETE overreaction.
Does no one have any perspective on this? Quick, how many people die of the flu each year just in the U.S.?
CDC estimates that influenza has resulted in between 9 million – 45 million illnesses, between 140,000 – 810,000 hospitalizations and between 12,000 – 61,000 deaths annually since 2010.
So...the U.S. economy, we must be in fucking REVERSE with 12x-61x the deaths, right?
The death rate for coronavirus must be like frigging AIDS, right?
More than two weeks after China locked down a major city to stop a dangerous viral outbreak, one of the world’s largest economies remains largely idle. Much of the country was supposed to have reopened by now, but its empty streets, quiet factories and legions of inactive workers suggest that weeks or months could pass before this vital motor of global growth is humming again.
The global economy could suffer the longer China stays in low gear. It has been hampered by both the outbreak and its own containment efforts, a process that has cut off workers from their jobs and factories from their raw materials. The result is a slowdown that is already slashing traffic along the world’s shipping lines and leading to forecasts of a sharp fall in production of everything from cars to smartphones.
“It’s like Europe in medieval times,” said Jörg Wuttke, the president of the European Chamber of Commerce in China, “where each city has its checks and crosschecks.”
(NYT)
Oh my God, stop. This is a COMPLETE overreaction.
Does no one have any perspective on this? Quick, how many people die of the flu each year just in the U.S.?
CDC estimates that influenza has resulted in between 9 million – 45 million illnesses, between 140,000 – 810,000 hospitalizations and between 12,000 – 61,000 deaths annually since 2010.
So...the U.S. economy, we must be in fucking REVERSE with 12x-61x the deaths, right?
The death rate for coronavirus must be like frigging AIDS, right?
Honest to God, the reaction to this has been so over the top I thought it was Western anti-China hysteria—The Yellow Peril!—until Zhongnanhai itself flipped its lid. The largest economy in the world “LARGELY IDLE,” threatening THE GLOBAL ECONOMY, China’s cities MEDIEVAL-IZED, WALLED CITIES...because of the FLU. Get outta here man, you’re making this shit up. I can’t believe this. I literally, I...I don’t know what to say.
