I'm not a doctor but I've been picking apart incorrect advisories on masks to bits because the medical focus is almost always on the wearer rather than using any form of mask (or even a folded t-towel) to protect others from the wearer.
I've lobbied politicians on the urgent need to get some bottom-up business continuity planning going. And I've at a much lower level I've had slanging matches with Trumpist denialists (American and Australian) on these forums. I need to know and understand the thinking of people like this to make a sensible analysis on what needs to be done to redress that thinking.
All of this sort of stuff is entirely relevant to where the ASX goes because where it does go, and how quickly it can recover depends on getting local managers heads around how they will keep businesses going in the face of falling demand and a disrupted workforces for the next 6 months at the very least.
There is an Australian roadmap for moving out of the so-called containment stage and into a so called mitigation stage but it seems to be incomplete in terms of practical advice for individuals and businesses. There is no omnipotent force in Canberra or anywhere else that can sort the detail out in the time that is available but we can learn from each others experiences ----- IF -------we move away from the top down only approach of places like China and the US. China is doing a far better job than the US but at an excessive economic cost IMHO.
With reported serious infection rates in China starting to decline where should be a ray of hope. I get the impression that European governments have reasonable (if imperfect plans) as well. Some have at least a partial business continuity focus while others will just shut everything down but they do all have plans. US planning, by contrast remains a complete disaster zone and so any productivity improvements (early recovery signs) realised in China, SK, and Japan may be overwhelmed by the inability of the US to roll out pubic health and business mitigation strategies.
Nothing is for certain. Viruses evolve in every host and versions of viruses that kill their hosts don't "usually" outlast the less virulent versions. There is therefore a chance that this pandemic will be less severe than what we are planning for but we can't be sure. And markets don't like uncertainty or incompetent response planning. The markets would like to think that this could be all over in a few months to prevent the debt bombs from imploding but they need to see competent response planning in key economies to get even a whisper of that assurance.
As usual there is an excessive emphasis on equity markets when what happens next (economically) depends largely on debt market impacts.
(20min delay)