Life in the Age of Corona

A Daily Diary

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Confusion

I started the day off with a review of the news today.

Clearly there is confusion across the US administration, if not the world, when it comes to medical supplies. Seems one arm of the US government has sent two shipments of medical equipment to Thailand – international solidarity is laudable and much needed, so it is a news item I welcome – were it not to continue with a different department reaching out to the government of Thailand requesting medical supplies which happen to be identical to what is currently being shipped. What the hell?

But it gets better. Having refused Chinese aid, Russia is now shipping medical supplies to the USA. Coincidentally identical to those it has received as a donation from Jack Ma.

The incompetence continues with some firms clueless where to ship what, even if they are producing much needed medical supplies with the lead office for coordinating the effort, FEMA, struggling to get supplies to where they need to go. As a result, States are bidding against States in order to get the much-needed supply, a sort of e-bay situation evolving.

None of this is designed to provide any level of comfort of course. Neither is the policy patchwork across the US, which means some states may be able to contain the spread, but will then be re-infected by people from the “do nothing states”. Which makes me wonder, can states/ places like NYC or MD enforce a travel bans for people arriving from “do nothing States” to avoid a second wave of infection?

Which of course leads to the immediate question of when do we get out of here?

News from Europe is decidedly better on a number of fronts.

Firstly, while Spain's deaths pass 9,000 infection rates slow. The same applies to Italy, which may have peaked and new infection rates in Germany and France have flattened. This suggests the extreme measures taken are successful. So let’s get on with it.

Secondly, the EU seems to be finally getting its act together and is figuring out joined action and solidarity. Looks like they will follow the German model of reducing working hours for employees so companies have to pay less and EU budgets making up the difference.

As the Socialist that I am, I liked this read about Amazon workers using their current popularity to get better terms of employment. Surely a company worth billions ought to be able to pay its workers a living wage and provide them with basic benefits such as leave, medical leave, and health insurance. After living in this country for almost four years (and in a bubble at that), I still have a hard time wrapping my head around the absence of what Europeans consider the norm (like paid annual leave, health insurance, job security, sick leave legislated by governments). At the same time, I am also far less understanding when Europeans whine about their social systems; there seems to be an acute absence of perspective.

I am still trying to figure out what to do for EM’s birthday tomorrow. I had reached out to her friends and asked them to stop by on the front lawn, grab a piece of cake, chat socially distanced (10 feet) and move on, but with the stay at home order, even this small celebration has just died. None the less I have taken the afternoon off so I can make a cake for her over lunch. And because of the virus, I scrambled to figure out a present for her. I will share tomorrow as EM does (proof) read this.

The social high light yesterday was a Zoom meeting with the Aikidoka from Capital. I had not realized how much I miss interactions with that crowd. We had a very skilled facilitator dial-in from California, who was organized enough to ask everyone what they had been up to over the past few weeks. I also never realized there were so many cats in residence with the different Aikidoka. And those without pets seem to be acquiring them these days. I guess it is for that essential dog walk opportunities adoption opens up!

Speaking of Zoom, seems that is how teachers now connect with their students. It is a bit weird to have my teenager tell me, mum, I have a Zoom meeting now and another one at 11:00! In the past video conference calls were solely my domain. It is nice to find this on my work computer though:

Hi mom!! Love youuuu Keep your head up and we’ll fight through this. Also, why is there such a big dent in the sofa? You just fall right through it to the bottom and can’t get up (Sofa in question is where I have been spending the last three weeks for work).

An interesting article I came across, but completely unrelated to the current crisis - refreshingly so – and on a topic, I have so far not given much thought too. Obviously one should, as this seems to be the new trend and also, of course, a market opportunity. I will give some thought to investing in this space, possibly those stocks are crisis-proof.

Oh, and here is what I dragged out of the basement by way of Easter decorations. Some are getting a makeover by the artist in residence.