How a World Without Borders Became a Ward With No Exit | Belmont Club

How a World Without Borders Became a Ward With No Exit | Belmont Club
"...Even at this early stage, the economic losses due to the epidemic are set to dwarf those of the blazes. 

Even if the 2019 coronavirus ends immediately -- and it is still growing -- it will have already altered the way our interconnected civilization works. 
Here are some challenges it has already posed....

• The need for contingent telecommuting. "The unprecedented quarantines – which have put 60 million people in China’s hardest-hit cities under lockdown – hopes to help reduce transmissions across the country. So instead of offices filled with workers, and shopping centres serving customers – millions of people are working from their apartments, in what’s been dubbed the world’s biggest work-from-home experiment."
• The need for backup logistical systems to supply communities under lockdown. "Around 500 million people in China are currently affected by policies put in place restricting movement, to contain COVID-19. That's more than the entire population of the United States and is equivalent to roughly 6.5 per cent of the world's population."
• The need for interlocks in the travel stream to safely move people from one environment to another without passing a pathogen. The U.S. is establishing quarantine sites on military bases. Australia is considering turning outback mining towns into isolation centers.
• The need for failover arrangements to replace critical processes knocked out by the disruption. The effect on the supply chain caused by events in China has affected many areas of manufacturing but, ironically, none more than the pharmaceutical industry.

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