Coronavirus

[New year revolutions...... 197]

I'm being careful dealing with customers

In an average winter some customers feel that if they have the sniffles I should have them too,fortunately not working in an air conditioned office with triple glazing free biscuits and racy Sonia to look after me I don't normally succumb to man flu

However I am taking reasonable precautions to this man made super virus 

Are you.?

Is the question to the house

[Halfpenny 114]

5 hours ago, New year revolutions...... said:

I'm being careful dealing with customers

In an average winter some customers feel that if they have the sniffles I should have them too,fortunately not working in an air conditioned office with triple glazing free biscuits and racy Sonia to look after me I don't normally succumb to man flu

However I am taking reasonable precautions to this man made super virus 

Are you.?

Is the question to the house

I am in Thailand at the moment.  All the cases here seem to be either Chinese or people who have been in direct contact with Chinese.  I gather it doesn't like warm air temperatures (its mostly over 30 degrees here in the daytime). When you think about it colds and flu do seem to spread mostly when the weather is cool/cold. We are told on TV that handwashing is the important thing. So I am washing hands at every opportunity.

I have to go back to UK in about 10 days where I think I'd be more likely to get it. I'm taking a couple of boxes of facemasks back with me and will keep up the handwashing...

I think the economy could take a very big hit. Especially if some business have to close or go on short time. People will delay major purchases.  Could not have come at a worse time (Brexit etc).  I have a few £100k's in investments (Vanguard, Fidelity trackers/ETFs) and they have taken a massive hammering in the past few days. Its very worrying.

Edited February 29, 2020 by Halfpenny

[CCC 31]

Stock market valuations were getting insane though so this correction is way overdue. Creates a buying opportunity, though my experiences over the last 12 months have taught me to trust no business when it comes to long term profit. Too many companies cooking the books, accountancy firms turning a blind eye and investors with money to burn (cazoo springs to mind). Physical assets feel safer.

[metcars 394]

I know someone that lives in wuhan. He’s a teacher and married into a local family. It’s been interesting comparing his version of events with our own news outlets? 

[Mojo121 229]

11 minutes ago, metcars said:

I know someone that lives in wuhan. He’s a teacher and married into a local family. It’s been interesting comparing his version of events with our own news outlets? 

I’ve seen some crazy videos. Police locking people in apartment videos, streets being sprayed by huge disinfection lorries and people collapsed seeming dead on the street - Internet scaremongering or true?

[crazybhp 0]

59 minutes ago, Mojo121 said:

I’ve seen some crazy videos. Police locking people in apartment videos, streets being sprayed by huge disinfection lorries and people collapsed seeming dead on the street - Internet scaremongering or true?

It's hard to know for sure if there real, worrying either way but at least the death rate is low.

[sparky 274]

1 hour ago, metcars said:

I know someone that lives in wuhan. He’s a teacher and married into a local family. It’s been interesting comparing his version of events with our own news outlets? 

Surely the Mail and Express wouldn't be involved in scaremongering, would they.......

[metcars 394]

2 hours ago, Mojo121 said:

I’ve seen some crazy videos. Police locking people in apartment videos, streets being sprayed by huge disinfection lorries and people collapsed seeming dead on the street - Internet scaremongering or true?

The Chinese government are dealing with it a lot better than you’d imagine. They can act quickly when they need to. Ironically home delivery take-away food is booming over there. All those affected by the virus are given a basic financial subsistence to buy food and pay bills! Lots of businesses have closed including supermarkets and grocery shops. People can’t commute as bus and rail staff shortages. 

I was listening to a news item about a guy in the UK who’d been told to quarantine himself at home for 80days? He said his firm had said he can work from home? I wonder how everyone else will get on that can’t work from home?

[Halfpenny 114]

38 minutes ago, metcars said:

The Chinese government are dealing with it a lot better than you’d imagine. They can act quickly when they need to. Ironically home delivery take-away food is booming over there. All those affected by the virus are given a basic financial subsistence to buy food and pay bills! 

Well, if someone in the takeaway kitchen was the get the virus then that would be the perfect way to spread it all over the city....

[Tony F 38]

Already theres panic buying and panic selling, whether its food or stock markets. It will be people and the media that will be the architects of any chaos that follows more than the virus. And if there is world slump in the economy, it's the cash rich corporations that will benefit, buying up investments at low prices, and if I may add, that this is nothing new and has always historically been the case. Lets all hope it all fizzles out over the coming weeks/months.

[metcars 394]

1 hour ago, Halfpenny said:

Well, if someone in the takeaway kitchen was the get the virus then that would be the perfect way to spread it all over the city....

True. But lots of villages in China have already quarantined themselves without being forced too by the government. They are showing more ‘personal responsibility’ than other countries? 

2 minutes ago, Tony F said:

Already theres panic buying and panic selling, whether its food or stock markets. It will be people and the media that will be the architects of any chaos that follows more than the virus. And if there is world slump in the economy, it's the cash rich corporations that will benefit, buying up investments at low prices, and if I may add, that this is nothing new and has always historically been the case. Lets all hope it all fizzles out over the coming weeks/months.

Yes, there’s always someone making money? Even with something like this? Big corporations can win by betting on the losers?

 

[New year revolutions...... 197]

So

No one wants to buy my face masks then

 

[Halfpenny 114]

I think we could be looking at a major recession. This is different to 2008 - back then it was the banking system wobbling. This time we are seeing problems with supply chains. China has about 25% of international trade. There is a city called Ningbo in China. I've been there. It is known as the 'plastic moulding capital of the world'. They say you can't buy a car that hasn't got something on it that was moulded in Ningbo. Apparantly the factories are on low output due to the virus.  Almost everything you buy has something made in China on it. Even a lot of raw materials for medicine production are supplied by the Chinese.  

[CCC 31]

Who knows. I think the reality is we’re overdue a recession, the central banks have been trying to avoid one for some reason by constantly lowering interest rates to keep the party going whatever the cost. If you look at profit levels for many businesses then they don’t match the stock valuations around. There is a good reason, why more FTSE chief executive’s have resigned/retired on the last 12 months than ever before.

Corona was just the trigger, not the cause.
 

In lots of ways it’s good for the waterline to drop a bit as there seem to be too many people out there happy to operate on wafer thin margins or trading purely on volume to keep debt under control. 

[metcars 394]

18 hours ago, Halfpenny said:

I think we could be looking at a major recession. This is different to 2008 - back then it was the banking system wobbling. This time we are seeing problems with supply chains. China has about 25% of international trade. There is a city called Ningbo in China. I've been there. It is known as the 'plastic moulding capital of the world'. They say you can't buy a car that hasn't got something on it that was moulded in Ningbo. Apparantly the factories are on low output due to the virus.  Almost everything you buy has something made in China on it. Even a lot of raw materials for medicine production are supplied by the Chinese.  

Although the Chinese have been able to move production in many cases 

[have a word with the wife 299]

i keep seeing the following in adverts i view =  

 

Due to recent global events the UK may experience distribution disruption in the coming weeks. We are working closely with our suppliers to ensure the impact on our stock levels is minimal. 

[Screenman 47]

I had an email from a USA supplier last week saying an aluminium casing will not be available until the end of March maybe, it is made in China.

[Jack Regan 116]

its only the flu... and only killing those that are waiting for the final nail in the coffin.

[New year revolutions...... 197]

2 hours ago, Jack Regan said:

its only the flu... and only killing those that are waiting for the final nail in the coffin.

well according to google if you weren't dead you would be 78

[metcars 394]

it’s times like this that the full horror really hits home! 

[Halfpenny 114]

On 3/2/2020 at 5:22 PM, Jack Regan said:

its only the flu... and only killing those that are waiting for the final nail in the coffin.

Well that doctor in Wuhan was only 34 and it killed him, and there is guy in Thailand only 32 in critical condition - he is a fit sportsman apparently. It seems that in some people it turns to pneumonia.  I'm nearly 60 and I'm a bit worried. 

[Casper 272]

41 minutes ago, Halfpenny said:

Well that doctor in Wuhan was only 34 and it killed him, and there is guy in Thailand only 32 in critical condition - he is a fit sportsman apparently. It seems that in some people it turns to pneumonia.  I'm nearly 60 and I'm a bit worried. 

Think a lot of people are getting worried now my ageing mother was saying about it this morning  she's in her seventies 

Edited March 3, 2020 by Casper

[metcars 394]

4 minutes ago, Casper said:

Think a lot of people are getting worried now my ageing mother was saying about it this morning  she's in her seventies 

My dads in his 80s, I’m 58? No sympathy on this forum for those of us with elderly parents obviously?

[Mark101 536]

My Dad and I need to take a trip to North America but he (80) is worried we will get quarantined, unable to get home. I am 46. 

[MarkTVS 209]

7 hours ago, metcars said:

it’s times like this that the full horror really hits home!