Easily overlooked issues regarding COVID-19

[Ghost Dog]

Conclusion
The world economy may become very different, simply because of COVID-19. The new virus doesn’t even need to directly affect the rest of the world very much to create a problem. The United States, Europe, and the rest of the world are very much dependent on the continued operation of China. The world economy has effectively put way too many eggs in one basket, and this basket is not now functioning as expected.

If China is barely producing anything for world markets, the rest of the world will suddenly discover that long supply chains weren’t such a good idea. There will be a big scramble to try to fill in the missing pieces of supply chains, but many goods are likely to be less available. We may discover quickly how much we depend upon China for everything from shoes to automobiles to furniture to electronics. World carbon dioxide emissions are likely to fall dramatically because of China’s problems, but will the accompanying issues be ones that the world economy can tolerate?

The thing that is ironic is that it is possible that the West’s fear of the new coronavirus may be overblown–we really won’t know what the impact will be with respect to people of European or of African descent until we have had a better chance to examine how the virus affects different populations. The next few weeks and months are likely to be quite instructive...

https://ourfiniteworld.com/2020/02/18/easily-overlooked-issues-regarding-covid-19/

Much in more detail at link.

[Aussie105]

1. Why do you think China is shutting down so many cities?

They desperately want to stop the virus from spreading.

They need to keep their internal supply lines, their factories, and their export logistics humming over. The whole system needs to be kept virus free.
Their whole economy is based on that.
The living standards of millions depend on that.

The effect of a worldwide pandemic is trivial to the effect it will have on China.

The rest of the world depends on China as a productive manufacturing country. Conversely, China depends on being able to supply the rest of the world. No winners in this virus outbreak at the moment, much worse to come if it is not contained.

[Ghost Dog]

5. The rest of the world depends on China...

... Container shipping from Chinese ports has collapsed since the outbreak of coronavirus and has yet to show any sign of recovery, threatening weeks of chaos for manufacturing supply lines and the broader structure of global trade. Almost half of the planned sailings on the route from Asia to North Europe have been cancelled over the last four weeks. A parallel drama is unfolding on routes from the Pacific Rim to the US and Latin America.

Lars Jensen from SeaIntelligence in Copenhagen said the loss of traffic is running at 300,000 containers a week. This will cause a logistical crunch in Europe in early March even if the epidemic is brought under control quickly...

Refrigerated ships full of frozen food are unable to enter Chinese ports because berths are full.... cannot tap into electricity. No dockers or drivers.

In Europe Fiat Chrysler has suspended production. Jaguar Land Rover are flying in parts in suitcases from China to UK...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/02/20/dominoes-falling-global-shipping-covid-19-continues-grip-chinas/

[empedocles]

2. CDC did not want the quarantined Americans brought directly here.

Who overruled CDC?

[Mosby]

3. The state department I think.

[dalton99a]

4. Mike Pompeo.