I think right now we need to stand together, petty political arguments need to wait, we are in a major catastrophe, we need to be positive.

In these dark times I think this song from Israel is good

Bashana haba’a, neshev al hamirpeset venispor tziporim nodedot.
Next year we will sit on the porch And count all the migrating birds

Yeladim, bekhoufsha, yesakhakhu tofeset beyn habayit, oulebeyn hasadot.
Children on vacation will play catch Between the house and the fields

Od tire, od tire, kama tov yihye, bashana, bashana haba’a
You will see, you will see How good it will be
Next Year

Anavim adumim, yavshilu ad ha’erev veyugshu tzonenim lashulkhan.
Red grapes will ripen by evening And be served chilled to the table

Verukhot redumim, yis’u el em haderekh itonim yeshanim ve’anan.
Pleasant breezes will blow on to the roads Old newspapers and clouds

Od tire, od tire, kama tov yihye, bashana, bashana haba’a
You will see, you will see How good it will be
Next Year

Bashana haba’a, nifros kapot yadayim, mul ha’or hanigar halavan.
We will spread out our open hands Into the bright white light

Anafa levana, tifros ba’or knafayim vehashemesh tizrakh betokhan.
A white heron will spread force in light its wings And the sun will rise in their midst

Od tire, od tire, kama tov yihye, bashana, bashana haba’a
You will see, you will see How good it will be
Next Year

Bashana haba’a, neshev al hamirpeset venispor tziporim nodedot.
Next year we will sit on the porch And count all the migrating birds

Yeladim, bekhoufsha, yesakhakhu tofeset beyn habayit, oulebeyn hasadot.
Children on vacation will play catch Between the house and the fields

Next year

well said bad times

As a WHO official said in a recent interview with the New Scientist magazine ...

[shutdown] ...that's the hard part, but not the really hard part.

To actually stop the virus, [China] had to do rapid testing of any suspect cases, immediate isolation of anyone who was a confirmed or suspect case,
and then quarantine the close contacts for 14 days so they could figure out if they were infected. These were the measures that stopped transmission
in China, not the big travel restrictions and lock-downs.

Indeed, surveillance is key, and that is where Europe is lacking. The high mortality rate in Italy w.r.t. other countries indicates that their community transmission is vastly under-reported.

The measures indicated this evening by the UK PM are both fair and sensible.

And overdue.

Richard, et al,
Anything said in advance of a pandemic seems alarmist.
After a pandemic begins, anything one has said or done is inadequate.

No, Italy was a case study on what happens when containment and surveillance fail and community transmission runs rampant.

Ireland's response was a contrast to that of the UK for example and initial data seems to indicate less community transmission as a result.

And this is what China did - compared to the West :

For many years Aviation had a growth rate of circa 6% per annum. Various events have sought to change that - events such as the financial meltdown in 2008, SARS, 9/11 and so on. After a hiatus, Aviation resumed its growth rate. I suggest this will happen again, after about 18 months when a decent/proper medicine will come out to give most of the human race immunity from this virus. So by 2003 we will be back to a new normal.
The main risks to this are the virus adapting to fight the vaccine, and the vaccine availability being held up by greedy Companies. But the Governments should prevent the latter.
The most scary thing, in my view, is the various Western Governments becoming addicted to their new found spending powers, and to the other powers that they are currently working up.
Meanwhile, they will take their eyes off China and Iran. That is what causes me to worry.

No longer worried about Russia? What's happened? I am devastated. If we worried about Iran and China then darn sure we must worry about Russia!

" The old risk associated to printing money vs higher inflation is also obsolete"

Utter nonsense, care to guess where all those computer generated billions released into the economy though the magic of QE went too? Asset bubbles baby!!! And although governments try to hide inflation by nit picking numbers everyone who buys stuff with their own money is well aware you are now getting less stuff for more $, this is called Shrinkfaltion. There's no free lunch, even in a digital world.

Although a vaccine could be here in record time that is still 6 - 12 months away which means it will be late to the party, any treatment will only help decrease the number of deaths but not the spread and hospital beds needed.

Most think COVID 19 is the problem, however it was just pin that burst the bubble, it has exposed the disgusting mess that central banks have created though artificially low interest rates and QE. If the economy was a Diabetic overweight person with high blood pressure who had lost a ton of weight due to a virus, QE is like the doctors prescribing him/her an unhealthy diet in an attempt to get him back to his old weight. We are in this generations defining moment.

There was plenty of other nonsense in that post...

And that is exactly what they did again. QE for infinity and beyond!

{TLTR}

~2 trillions(!) in the US alone so far. This time they called it "unlimited" support (like there is such thing in a finite world). Together this with the zero (negative in real term) interest rates they wont even hide their intent any longer. And yes doing this simply to prop up (back to where it was ASAP or to even bigger) asset bubbles. (Privatize profits, share the losses)
Just look at the (dead-cat I suspect) "bounce" of D/J (and every stock exchanges) yesterday and today. Of course it is clearly based on "fundamentals". "Wall street posts best performance in almost 90 years" headlines all over. Despite the fact, that countries/economies around the world are in a deeper !!!!e then they were a day before, W/S's grown about 20% in a day. Now that is a successful day in the office. They haven't even closed the bailout deal in congress, yet stock/company "valuations" increased by billions of USD. In such a mad world anything can happen with one exception: "We will not waver; we will not tire; we will not falter, and we will not fail" ("we" doesn't stand for general public in case you wondered).

{EOF TLTR}

I have read that the UK gov isn't going to bailout airlines, but I guess then it is exactly what they are planing to do, just waiting until they can fleece the retail investors a bit more first. Spread more fear amongst the public, to be ready to change those pesky employee T&C's for the benefit of the owners without any resistance. Then share the losses with the plebs of course, "for the children".

And the peasants rejoice.

Government help and QE
 

I strongly disagree, the truth is that QE and low interest rates have been used and abused by Central Banks for several years and well before COVID-19 and the global economy was still healthy despite QE + low rates.
If what you say is actually true then it will be the end of the world soon which I do not think will be the case.
Governments have no other solution.
Would you stop QE and let millions of people lose their jobs and most companies shut down?
If governments stop all the QE assistance the consequences would be unthinkable. It would probably mean the extinction of human race as our existance is based on the existing economic system unless you can provide a different solution please?

Or perhaps the chance for some of the world's indigenous peoples to live in what used to be their homelands. (sorry, back to the thread)

So true
 

Yes so true :)

and the global economy was made to appear healthy despite QE + low rates. It is not healthy when you have negative (in real term) interest rates. It means there can not be paid any interest on your cash/savings. That is a complete failure and not a booming economy.
It is thinkable you just don't want to hear it, instead just want to kick the can down on the road.. the easy way out.
Sure:

Restore capitalism!

News of the day from France :
Orly airport announced this afternoon they are closing down the airport from 31 March UFN.
Roissy (CDG) traffic is down 89% and they will close 2 terminals , no date yet .
Air France current reduced capacity schedule ( max 10% of Summer schedule) will last for the next 2 months .

ambidextrous
 

Wait until the tide goes out and then see he's still wearing clothing or is now naked?

Extinction of the human race does not imply “the end of the world”. planet earth or whatever you call it, still has a few billion years left before our star expires and it would probably survive extremely well without the human species.