British and American economic shutdowns for Covid-19 virus
(Thanks TACHO)
NPR this am had Dr. John Ionides, Stanford University Professor. Maybe a summary sentence of his short presentation was: "If you ruin the economy, that will result in millions of people dying for other reasons."
(The clip said he would be on at greater length later.)
California and Pennsylvania governors just shut down all "non-essential" businesses. In PA this includes "State Stores," which are the only places all spirits are sold. Also, a large fraction or majority of the wine, since they were the only source until recently. So wine drinkers will head for the large food stores where they will be exposed to orders of magnitude more people for much longer time periods. (State Store customers seem to know what they want and don't spend much time procuring it.) For spirits, it will be road trips to surrounding states...interacting at rest, fuel and food stops with other travelers.
(State Store profits and wine&spirit taxes are also a large source of State income, where sales and income taxes will decline, and unemployment benefits and special expenses will increase, in this economic recession.)
Last edited by dogsridewith; 20th Mar 2020 at 14:42.