Disasters in Slow Motion (pt. 4) - Mar 17, 2020

 

Well, it looks like the “slow motion” portion of this disaster is indeed nearing its end, as we begin to crest the hill and prepare to plunge headlong down into this at ever increasing speed. As of Friday, when I last wrote, the US had 1,873 known cases. Today alone the United States reported 1,778 new cases for a grand total of 6,441 known cases. This means that known cases are now on track to exponentially increase every 60 hours in the US. In New York City, 814 people are known to have Covid-19, and residents have been told to assume that they have been exposed.

In that same period of time, Italy has gone from an infection rate of just under 300/million to 521.1/million. Reported deaths in Italy have essentially doubled in the past 60 hours.

The window to stop this thing before it got bad has closed...Our government failed to act when they could’ve, pundits politicized this and spread information, and now? Now things are going to get really bad.

A few days ago I saw someone compare that day’s news as being equivalent to watching the second tower go down on 9/11. I didn’t agree then, I don’t agree now. We are sitting, awaiting the “landfall” of a storm that is likely going to last months. The damage in terms of lives lost (as well as the economy) is impossible even to predict at this point.

The only good news is that the global mortality rate is sitting at only 4.0% instead of the 7.9% of Italy.

Meanwhile, in Collier County? The beaches are still open and people have swarmed across the state from the east coast (where beaches are already closed) to pack beaches here...because THAT was a good idea.

The original Renaissance Pleasure Faire (Southern) has gone from a postponed opening, to a cancelled season. Indeed, cancellations are coming in across the board in all industries. People are going to start running out of money very soon...and that is when things are going to get truly frightening.