Mexico up-date

[JasonB]

Here's another item posted by Jonathan...
As of last night, people were all over the malecon disregarding the edict to stay home so now the malecon has been closed indefinitely. That's why the beaches were also closed. People used the closing of schools and business to mean as "vacation time." Notice also no boat traffic. Port has been shut down. Use your mouse to scroll the whole malecon.
Also they are now having a panick buying in all the big stores - and it's not toilet paper...guess what it is...

...Cerveza?

[Jay Murakoshi]

YUP
If I could figure out how to send the photo, I would. Looks like they are in the big shopping stores like Costco and the other larger stores. They have those flat carts loaded with Cerveza. No food, no TP

[JasonB]

Well psychologists and sociologists will have quite a lot to talk about in the coming years. I guess it’s really true that you get to see the true measure of a person in times of crisis...some good, some bad, some just hilarious.

More seriously though, I really feel for the people who depend so heavily on tourism in those Mexican towns. Both the viral pandemic, and the economic fallout, will no doubt hit them much harder than us here. We had to pull the plug on our trip about a week ago, and I ended up having a very nice (but sad) e-mail conversation with the company we had reserved an ATV from. She was talking about how many hotels in Cabo had already closed, and that they had already layed off more than 14,000 in the hospitality industry (old numbers now of course, so I’m sure it’s higher now). I asked if she thought there was much the Mexican government could do, or would do, to try and blunt the impact somewhat. She said she would not be holding out any such hopes.

This will hurt some very good people...

[Rich Morrison]

Well psychologists and sociologists will have quite a lot to talk about in the coming years. I guess it’s really true that you get to see the true measure of a person in times of crisis...some good, some bad, some just hilarious.

More seriously though, I really feel for the people who depend so heavily on tourism in those Mexican towns. Both the viral pandemic, and the economic fallout, will no doubt hit them much harder than us here. We had to pull the plug on our trip about a week ago, and I ended up having a very nice (but sad) e-mail conversation with the company we had reserved an ATV from. She was talking about how many hotels in Cabo had already closed, and that they had already layed off more than 14,000 in the hospitality industry (old numbers now of course, so I’m sure it’s higher now). I asked if she thought there was much the Mexican government could do, or would do, to try and blunt the impact somewhat. She said she would not be holding out any such hopes.

This will hurt some very good people...

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again...the mental health toll of this thing is going to FAR outstrip the heath toll. Loss of livelihood, abuse in the home during shelter in place, PTSD in the health care community, just plain fear - the suicide rate is going to skyrocket. The toll in number of lives and families destroyed by what we’ve done here will be much much worse and longer lasting than any death toll as a result of the virus. But hey, we’re all looking out for each other, right?

[JasonB]

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again...the mental health toll of this thing is going to FAR outstrip the heath toll. Loss of livelihood, abuse in the home during shelter in place, PTSD in the health care community, just plain fear - the suicide rate is going to skyrocket. The toll in number of lives and families destroyed by what we’ve done here will be much much worse and longer lasting than any death toll as a result of the virus. But hey, we’re all looking out for each other, right?

My concerns in that post were sincere. I think the human suffering from the health toll is bad enough already, and it’s abundantly clear that it will get a lot worse before this is over. All of those peripheral issues you mention, and many others, are indeed very real too. Pretty much a predictable situation, given the myriad of problems the virus is creating. Not sure how you feel that constantly trying to downplay the realities of the viral pandemic itself is somehow helpful? I mean we could try and just pretend it’s “not that bad”, or cross our fingers that it just goes away quick...but even amongst those who did at first think along those lines, most have since done a 180 about face as the pandemic has spread, and our collective abilities to handle it have not been able to keep ahead of things.

[Rich Morrison]

My concerns in that post were sincere. I think the human suffering from the health toll is bad enough already, and it’s abundantly clear that it will get a lot worse before this is over. All of those peripheral issues you mention, and many others, are indeed very real too. Pretty much a predictable situation, given the myriad of problems the virus is creating. Not sure how you feel that constantly trying to downplay the realities of the viral pandemic itself is somehow helpful? I mean we could try and just pretend it’s “not that bad”, or cross our fingers that it just goes away quick...but even amongst those who did at first think along those lines, most have since done a 180 about face as the pandemic has spread, and our collective abilities to handle it have not been able to keep ahead of things.

Those issues are decidedly not peripheral to folks whose business have already gone under or to those who have lost jobs or are living in hell on earth under shelter in place - particularly children. No one is seeing them everyday at school and able to make sure things at home are ok. My wife is an educator - trust me - it’s vey very bad. I’m sure they are peripheral to those who have lost or have loved ones suffering from the virus. But in the long run we are doing far more damage than the virus will ever do. I’ve said nothing here to downplay the seriousness of the situation. We are still 4-8 weeks away from really knowing where we stand in this country. The media hysteria is out of hand and is contributing to the issues I’ve mentioned above. Yes this is a serious situation. But we are making it much much worse on ourselves and no one sees or realizes how bad this is and is going to be.

[Rick.H]

When I first saw the graph comparing the "let r rip" scenario vs. "flatten the curve" scenario, I was concerned about how long the the timeline was for "flatten the curve" which means more economic impact. I've since realized that having 2,000,000 people die over a few months would be no picnic either and would have big economic consequences also. Either way we are in for a rough ride.