Has coronavirus affected you already?

[Martin Everson]

Is here anyone who has experience with financial events like this?

Your looking for people with experience of making money during a Pandemic?

 

[ricomendez]

Your looking for people with experience of making money during a Pandemic?

Yes. I am totally not experienced but i want to learn.

 

[Martin Everson]

Yes. I am totally not experienced but i want to learn.

Well thank God you were not around during WW2 and n**i's sticking people in ovens. You may have wanted to know how to profit from that. I think your question is inappropriate at current time. However open a new thread for such a subject. This thread is not about that.

 

[ricomendez]

Sorry i didnt wanted to make this bad impression. But i think its more easy to anticipate trends in such a period than in a "normal period of time"

 

[Marie Manila]

I would like to quote a post from Reddit here, which shows the situation in Italy quite good and I believe it is true what the user wrote there:

I live in the heart of the Lombardy region. All my family has it and my grand uncle died. People just stay home and that’s it. There is not much to do and shops are closed.

You can hear ambulances all day and night.

My uncle is in the hospital with a high fever. His wife got it as well but she is home as her symptoms are milder. My cousin is taking care of her and miraculously she is fine.

However her grandpa died and she couldn’t even go to visit him. Her grandma is sick as well and she can’t see her either and she can’t see her dad. Hospitals are closed.

The available hospital beds in intensive care have run out and doctors are making tough choices for who to try to save which is terrifying considering most of my family is old and they might not get a bed.

Doctors are overworked and tired and since I know many people that work in the hospital, they are sharing with me these gruesome pics of people recovered in the intensive care unit. They are intubated and it just is a sad view.

Hospitals are so full of people on life support because of Coronavirus people are amassed on the corridors because they lack rooms:

My friend who gets people with the ambulance is working non stop to get people who are in critical conditions.

People keep saying it’s just a flu. Yes sure, but a flu without having had a vaccine can be quite dangerous. The youngest person I know that has it, he is in his forties and has had 40 degrees Celsius temperature for two weeks straight and counting.

Don’t catch it, it’s really not fun even if your immune system is strong, trust me on this, I have seen the repercussion on my family first hand.

No church is open or public event is held.

Since Italy is primarily populated by old people, we are used to see the streets being empty and everything being quite. Right now is just quieter.

They couldn’t even held the funeral for her grandpa.

My grandma woke up sick and I truly hope she has something else.

So many people in my city have it and yet they keep going around the city and spreading it. Incredible.

Some people go to the supermarket and get out of it with tons of food so that they don’t need to go shopping again. Others, like my grandma, go everyday because “how else is she going to get fresh bread?” Luckily we have convinced her that she cannot go anymore and she said from tomorrow she won’t leave the house. Just this Sunday she HAD to go to church to confess. The town priest has been taken to the hospital today because he catched Coronavirus and he is in critical conditions.

I wonder how this death count will go up now that the hospitals are overfilled.

Rumor has it that my cousin’s grandma got it because she was in the hospital being treated because she broke her back but I can’t be sure about this so this is just our personal speculation based on no real evidence so don’t take my word for it.

My personal opinion:
Most governments (especially European ones) do not do enough to fight against this virus.
Already in January they should have stoped most flights, closed borders and so on.
Especially, when the outbreak in Italy happened, the borders to Austria, Switzerland, Slovenia and France should had been closed immediately.

But every politician is fearing of economic problems, if they react. Now we have these problems! And additionally many people will lose some loved ones.

 

[Gediminas]

Most governments (especially European ones) do not do enough to fight against this virus.

Totally agree. EU could have taken precautions much earlier. There was a good example already. But I don't believe it will be as bad as it was in China.

Fingers crossed.

 

[void]

Totally agree. EU could have taken precautions much earlier. There was a good example already. But I don't believe it will be as bad as it was in China.

This event clearly shows there is nothing like EU when something really serious emerges. All states just take care about them selves - naturally. It's also worth mentioning that states (defined by borders) are completely artificial and inefficient units to deal with a virus but still... works better than whole Europe.

And speaking about Chine I'm afraid that we know s**t abouth how bad is was/is.

 

[Martin Everson]

I would say to everyone stay strong. The way it is spreading especially in Italy is unnatural. It has to be an airborne virus and not down to just touch alone.

Governments aint telling people the truth in order to prevent mass panic. They should tell people the truth that the virus is actually airborne hence why it spreads so easily .

Coronavirus is airborne, Chinese official confirms

 

[bibing]

Europe is clearly not experience in pandemics!

This is what happened.

People saying how come Italy is in such bad situation: I'm quite sure the virus has been going around for much longer than they say. First death was around February 21.

At this point we do believe the virus was around in Italy since the end of January/ start on February.

The researchers said the virus in Italy came via Germany, so it was China > Germany > Italy.

Italy clearly underestimated the impact of the virus (exactly like UK and other EU countries)

This is the result.

Chinese are currently running away from UK to Hong Kong and China because they know how it will go in a few weeks and they see they are more protected in Asia. This is what happen when you have a blonde bitch as PM.

It will be a matter of days and other countries will reach Italy and maybe surpass it with the number of deaths.

This is an interesting article all of you should read, no excemption, wherever you live “Coronavirus: Why You Must Act Now” by Tomas Pueyo https://link.medium.com/5APMHYFLV4

Stay the f**k at home!

 

[marioIT]

I'm scared about a few things now:
1) hospitals, try to not fucking going there. they are pretty much infested. I know medics working with hazmat suits all day and yet they got it. Doctors and nurses are moving between hospitals and they spread it well before they know. Same for ambulances driving patients in etc
2) the whole delivery chain: amazon, postmen etc as it survives on cardboard at least 1 day and plastics/steel 3 days... here in italy two postmen already died. One postman and other working at big delivery hub... I stopped ordering anything really.
3) policemen/fire dept etc here they are on the streets all day long right now. If one gets it, it'll spread to the whole barrack, from barrack to their wives. Already happened.
4) uni campuses... pretty sure it spread there too before they shut them down, everyone then went back to their parents house moving around the country.
5) stupid people that got it, still they don't know officially as not been yet tested, but got a fever and still go out even with fever/bad cough... infecting others
a nurse got it, was forced quarantine at home. yet she went out as she felt good, because "you know I'm a nurse, I know when I'm ok"... was caught by police and she'll really face some jail soon.

it spreads fast! It doesn't seem as they cannot test every citizen, even though the numbers you see on the news are scary...
but I'm pretty sure the reality is much worse than that.
I thought I was safe in my small town in the middle of nowhere... well I read the news daily and it's getting closer day by day.
Plenty of people died in their 50s here in Italy. the average age of patients coming into ICUs is now 40-45 they said.

I know numbers aren't high... but if you think that those are pretty much from a specific area, it's scary.
When you hear mortuary chambers are full and crematoriums are going at full speed in the infected areas, it's crazy.
THese pics are from Lombardy, Bergamo.
They are filling churches and tents now, yes they're not empty...

 

[OTR365]

I haven't been affected much, except for finances (LOL) and flight cancellations.

Things escalated quicker than I thought. On Sunday in a Nordic country, an airline staff told me they won't let me fly. Cyprus had closed its border for non-residents. I am a resident, but an utility bill in email was not enough of a proof. Luckily, after a frantic search, I found a copy of an immigration document in financial website where I am KYC'd. In Munich airport it was the same shitshow. There was an old British couple - a man in wheelchair - who did not have any proof. I think they did let them board the plane nevertheless.

While on the plane it struck me that all the airport and airline staff I had seen that day, will be laid off or lose their jobs in the very near future. Taking that into account, their conduct was very professional; just concentrating to solve the deluge of problems of clients.

I was planning to move to Georgia this spring. Oh well, maybe next spring then

 

[iloveyouguys]

Today even the biggest internet provider collapsed for half an hour and even if they were only 30mins it was panic.

I ask because I'm day trading right now. Why did the internet collapse? Do you think it will happen again? Did your cell phone internet work during the ISP collapse?

I hope things get better soon.

 

[bibing]

Why did the internet collapse?

Pornub offered free premium accounts to Italians. That's why.

Jokes apart, I think because everybody is staying at home, everybody is using the Internet (streaming, gaming, P**N, YouTube, etc.).
I'm sure it's going to put an heavy burden on the Internet infrastructure

 

[marioIT]

I don't know why it collapsed, maybe the infrastructure saturated and that was the time to scale it up (load balancing or don't know what's the exact term).
4G with other providers was working but I know friends that had issues depending on location. Outside of big cities is quite easy to saturate 4G antennas, as usually are just for random browsing, not high bandwidth.
I read internet traffic went +70% on that day... luckily the infrastructure can cope with that. A friend works at a big provider (IT engineer) told me it was mainly due to gaming: Fortnite, CoD Warzone was being released (175 GBs !!!!) just when ALL kids (and some of their dads) were at home etc Plus P**N and every kind of video streaming.
As today I have zero internet issues in Italy, apart from those 30mins in that old post.

to get back to the thread, business is hell, customers are not there anymore.
It's like everyone is waiting, to understand how to move, if to pivot, or just shut it down, will gov help with taxes etc.
MANY businesses will fail for sure. Even bigger ones unless they start sacking people. Italian gov said it will help small businesses with wage compensations.
The economy is going down the sink. Taxes were already pretty high, they will have to raise them for sure after all this will pass.
I'm planning to pivot into something that can work in this situation (without being a speculator).
Food sales +81% a friend wasn't doing well online, his wife started a small food shop months ago and she's making HUGE bucks right now. They can't restock quick enough and they're restocking and increasing everything daily!
Plans have already been leaked to extend this lockdown further to April. I just read driving license exams/car MOTs and similar deadlines have already been extended from April to October!
I honestly don't know what to do. It's not panic, but fear.
It's shocking. I can live on emergency funds and passive income.
Not enough tranquility to do any kind of full-day active income right now.

 

[Gediminas]

I don't know why it collapsed, maybe the infrastructure saturated and that was the time to scale it up (load balancing or don't know what's the exact term).
4G with other providers was working but I know friends that had issues depending on location. Outside of big cities is quite easy to saturate 4G antennas, as usually are just for random browsing, not high bandwidth.
I read internet traffic went +70% on that day... luckily the infrastructure can cope with that. A friend works at a big provider (IT engineer) told me it was mainly due to gaming: Fortnite, CoD Warzone was being released (175 GBs !!!!) just when ALL kids (and some of their dads) were at home etc Plus P**N and every kind of video streaming.
As today I have zero internet issues in Italy, apart from those 30mins in that old post.

to get back to the thread, business is hell, customers are not there anymore.
It's like everyone is waiting, to understand how to move, if to pivot, or just shut it down, will gov help with taxes etc.
MANY businesses will fail for sure. Even bigger ones unless they start sacking people. Italian gov said it will help small businesses with wage compensations.
The economy is going down the sink. Taxes were already pretty high, they will have to raise them for sure after all this will pass.
I'm planning to pivot into something that can work in this situation (without being a speculator).
Food sales +81% a friend wasn't doing well online, his wife started a small food shop months ago and she's making HUGE bucks right now. They can't restock quick enough and they're restocking and increasing everything daily!
Plans have already been leaked to extend this lockdown further to April. I just read driving license exams/car MOTs and similar deadlines have already been extended from April to October!
I honestly don't know what to do. It's not panic, but fear.
It's shocking. I can live on emergency funds and passive income.
Not enough tranquility to do any kind of full-day active income right now.

Do you know what is the situation with smaller towns in the middle of Italy? Are there any safe regions?

 

[marioIT]

Do you know what is the situation with smaller towns in the middle of Italy? Are there any safe regions?

this is the official italian map right now. If you open the link and click "province" below the map you get a more detailed picture
if you have chrome it'll translate this just fine in your language
Operations Dashboard for ArcGIS

but remember these are just the tested ones. Plenty of medics are saying the real positive cases are at least 10x these numbers, as it's impossible to test everyone unless they've got a very high fever or needs hospital.

I am in a "safe" small town. Safe means there are no cases nearby and "small town in the middle of nowhere".
Plenty of safe small towns in the middle of nowhere. They are safe for now, if the thing gets here we're fucked as hospitals are far away and we have way fewer ICU beds than Lombardy!
And imho south hospitals on average aren't as good and fast-acting as the Lombardy ones.
South is laid back old-school. North is modern and fast-paced.
It's hard to pinpoint safe towns, people are paranoid as many came back from Lombardy as soon as the lockdown decree was approved.
I'm talking about holiday home owners, university students, seasonal workers, police/army cadets, plenty of these kinds of people moved from south to north to work/study/train. As soon the north was locked they all fleed in mass back to the south, even before the full nationwide lockdown went into force. These are the spreaders.
Southern regions are trying to track these people and force them to self-quarantine at home for 2 weeks even if don't have the virus symptoms.
But even in my small town words travels fast and there are already rumors of many of these people going to shops, while they should stay at home.
My mayor has just started to send text messages like "it will soon happen here too, just don't panic". So I'm starting to think he knows already someone with symptoms.
But they aren't telling it officially until someone has been tested for it (they'll only test ones with very evident symptoms right now, not anyone with just light flu symptoms)
You should see the faces when a cough or sneeze is heard paranoid level at 100%.

 

[Gediminas]

You should see the faces when a cough or sneeze is heard paranoid level at 100%.

This is similar to how I feel when someone coughs near me these days. I understand it's ridiculous, but the natural instinct is playing the role...

 

[KJK]

MANY businesses will fail for sure. Even bigger ones unless they start sacking people. Italian gov said it will help small businesses with wage compensations.

The economy is going down the sink. Taxes were already pretty high, they will have to raise them for sure after all this will pass.

Plans have already been leaked to extend this lockdown further to April. I just read driving license exams/car MOTs and similar deadlines have already been extended from April to October!

It's shocking. I can live on emergency funds and passive income.
Not enough tranquility to do any kind of full-day active income right now.

I don't know much about Italy, I've only been to Milan once long time ago but I am really completely shocked by this.

According to statistics, your case fatality rate is like 25 times higher (!!!) than in Germany.
This can either mean that
- your population is super-infected with this (i.e. 25%+ of all Italians carry the virus)
- there really weren't enough beds
- for some reason there was a super-spreader situation where 1 person infected 10000 others in a tourist location or some ski resort
- you use different methodology for the stastistics compared to Germany and China

This really shows that some economies are very fragile and all you need is a virus that acts like a pin that pops the baloon.
I'm really sorry but I don't understand how Italy can work with such high debt, high taxes, 10%+ of GDP (tourism) gone, now nationalizing the airlines...

but remember these are just the tested ones. Plenty of medics are saying the real positive cases are at least 10x these numbers, as it's impossible to test everyone unless they've got a very high fever or needs hospital.

I am in a "safe" small town. Safe means there are no cases nearby and "small town in the middle of nowhere".
Plenty of safe small towns in the middle of nowhere. They are safe for now, if the thing gets here we're fucked as hospitals are far away and we have way fewer ICU beds than Lombardy!
And imho south hospitals on average aren't as good and fast-acting as the Lombardy ones.
South is laid back old-school. North is modern and fast-paced.

My mayor has just started to send text messages like "it will soon happen here too, just don't panic". So I'm starting to think he knows already someone with symptoms.

If you have so many deaths, I'd say this has to be even more than 10x, maybe 50x or 100x.
Small towns are probably good idea, I'm in a small town now as well, zero confirmed cases right now, main square completely empty, hospital prepared (hopefully) for emergency situation.

I feel sorry for Italians and I still don't understand why it spreads so fast, even faster than in China. Either the rest of the world will go through this in 10-15 days and everyone will suffer or the virus really has different impacts on different societies.

For example I imagine the impact on USA may not be so bad, the healthcare is expensive but they declared all coronavirus-related costs will be reimbursed; Americans often live more isolated lifestyle in the suburbs in smaller families while Italians live in cities with multigenerational families, they enjoy going out, often city centers are crowded with tourists - maybe that caused the insane spread.

We will see, imho how USA handles this will decide whether the world will go into depression / deflationary crisis / apocalypse, or the world will struggle for 1-2 months and then carry on and things will improve. I'm a bit afraid when I see Trump's press conference or people in Florida partying on beaches as if this is the best time ever to do that...

 

[Martin Everson]

This really shows that some economies are very fragile and all you need is a virus that acts like a pin that pops the baloon.

I think we have found the blue print for any terrorist group or rogue scientist to bring down the global economy . We are witnessing first hand the damage a virus can do. I think the world and free movement will never be the same again. Only silver lining is the virus is not as deadly as some out there. Imagine if it was a virus that resulted in a 100% death rate on infection .

 

[Gediminas]

I think we have found the blue print for any terrorist group or rogue scientist to bring down the global economy . We are witnessing first hand the damage a virus can do. I think the world will never be the same again. Only silver lining is the virus is not as deadly as some out there. Imagine if it was a virus that resulted in a 100% death rate on infection .

Totally agree with you about the world not being the same anymore. I guess the world won't be that free to travel anymore. At least for some years.