Canoerebel
Posts: 21100
Joined: 12/14/2002 From: Northwestern Georgia, USA Status: offline
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The pandemic is essentially over in China, South Korea, and probably Japan. Italy is next in terms of "riding the bell-shaped curve." Italy is far up the "discouraging side" of the bell. How long will that increase continue or is it about to begin a downswing. We don't know yet. Any day could bring a change. But every day the number increases is frightening. (Iran would offer a parallel to Italy, but there seems to be a lot of uncertainty about the reliability of the numbers coming from Iran.) Spain (and probably France) are now on the upswing, following that discouraging upward trend on the bell-shaped curve. How Italy ultimately fares will help us know how long the bad news will continue in these two countries. Germany and UK might or might not have similar experiences - at the moment, mortality in those two countries is significantly lower. Since Italy has imposed strong countermeasures, followed soon thereafter by most European countries, will that have a dampening effect on the pandemic there? We'll see. It should be noted that Italy has already suffered far more than South Korea. Thanks to our European "cousins," the USA had the benefit of seeing things develop in Italy, et. al. and to begin taking strong countermeasures relatively early in the ride on that bell-shaped curve. Here, we'll be on the upswing for quite some time but possibly not as steeply nor as long as we would have had Europe not been a week or 10 days ahead of us. Right now, the news is an unending cycle of calamity or despair, and with some reason. But some of the underlying numbers look fairly encouraging (South Korea, for instance). If Italy turns in the next week - and I think it probably will - the news cycles will begin to offer some encouraging words. As other countries come to grips with the pandemic and begin to report South Korea-type bell-shaped-curve numbers, a sense of optimism will return. The economic impact is going to be huge, but the optimism/euphoria when the news turns good and when things begin to return to normal will help a bit. I'll be surprised if Europe and the USA don't begin the "hey, are things turning now? in a week or two. Maybe even this week. But I'm no prophet, which is why I don't bet on sporting events or other games of chance.
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