General Discussion/Q&A on Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Pushka]

https://www.facebook.com/LandlineABC/photos/a.655982667795317/2941008572626037

A meat tray that vegetarians would love.

 

[TheRealTMA]

MrsTRTma wants to patent the idea of using pool noodles (as some cyclists do) asa measure your others to stay outside if one metre.

pool noodle bicycle safety - Google Search

Remember you heard it on AFF first.

 

[Tropic]

Geeze people can hate the man and his political party all they like - its a free country who cares - but really wish they would give the constant political digs a rest...getting boring...
Maybe I'm just tired and emotional

 

[dajop]

On the political side, I was thinking of the responses to crises in the past , and do believe Howard and Hawke led very strong responses to certain crises the country faced, the sort of leadership te country expects today, but don't seem to be getting (FWIW, I don't think the opposition would be any better either).

But in fairness, no-one is used to rolling crises. In 2001 it was 9-11, in 2002 the Bali bombing, in 1996 - the Port Arthur Massacre, in 1983 - Ash Wednesday. All very discrete events, over in a few days, easy to take charge of and move on. This year there hasn't been a discrete one or two day "event" that called out for strong and immediate leadership, the bushfires and COVID-19 both built and built and built until suddenly it a crisis was on us. Much more difficult to deal with, IMHO.

 

[p--and--t]

An interesting article on how to predict & smooth the curve of infection... (not paywalled)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/corona-simulator/

 

[Flashback]

Some here have suggested that resturants and coffee shops should close - if anything perhaps they should offer take-out only. With the supermarkets being largely empty of the items I like to eat, I'll starve if all the little food places close, and this would do more unecessary damage to our economy.

Restaurants etc. closed in Holland, only supermarkets open so had to cancel a trip there. Work trip to Manchester cancelled this week now as higher level approvals required.

Central London feels much quieter, had to pop in for a client meeting today. I suspect tomorrow will be quieter as 3 of my clients have already instigated a WFH mandatory policy in the last 24 hours, so as companies likely do the same today I suspect less people with a *need* to travel in from tomorrow onwards.

 

[Flashback]

Norwegian has cancelled most longhaul flights, 90% of employees likely to be laid off.
SAS has pretty much halted operations.
Austrian has halted operations.

I'd say you can almost write off the next 30 days of travel, minimum - especially given the 30 day ban that EU is pushing for.

 

[Denali]

..... , had to pop in for a client meeting today...

We've been told no visitors allowed in the office.

Even the poor postie is dropping the mail box at the door/no longer coming inside.

 

[Flashback]

We've been told no visitors allowed in the office.

Even the poor postie is dropping the mail box at the door/no longer coming inside.

Yeah, we're the same but it was something that could only be done in person so will be the last visit for a while!

 

[RooFlyer]

Much more difficult to deal with, IMHO.

Agree, whick makes all the 'Monday quarterbacking' here and in the media all the more egregious.

And observing at close quarters the European responses recently, I'd have to say the Australian response isn't too far out of line, again, considering the uniqueness of the situation.

 

[33kft]

I think the spam situation is getting out of hand. I don't mean the kind that Woolworths used to stock, but the email situation. It started off well intentioned enough with the Uber Eats and Menulogs of the world all emailing me (ashamed to admit they all have me on their database by now) to let me know how they were handling the situation, followed by travel related entities, woolworths and coles, and now after days of this, priceline, netflix and a database middleware software vendor emailing me to tell me they can all handle the virus. Surely at this point it becomes somewhat offensive for companies to try to send out marketing cough on account of a deadly pandemic?

 

[Must...Fly!]

I think the spam situation is getting out of hand. I don't mean the kind that Woolworths used to stock, but the email situation. It started off well intentioned enough with the Uber Eats and Menulogs of the world all emailing me (ashamed to admit they all have me on their database by now) to let me know how they were handling the situation, followed by travel related entities, woolworths and coles, and now after days of this, priceline, netflix and a database middleware software vendor emailing me to tell me they can all handle the virus. Surely at this point it becomes somewhat offensive for companies to try to send out marketing cough on account of a deadly pandemic?

I don't think it's marketing cough necessarily, they're trying to maintain confidence in their own business operations. Reality is that as people lose income, people will have to cut spending in many different ways and it's just about keeping people confident that they won't be losing money if they keep up accounts/memberships etc.

 

[Denali]

I got one from Kathmadu the other day.

Speaking for myself, I havent bought lunch at work for over 2 weeks. Not because I dont trust the food outlet food standards but its that unknown factor of who is handling the food boxes, cultery ect so they are all hurting.

Now Im waiting for Geoff Harvey to start his usual "the internet is killing retail" BS. Remember when he said online shopping was a con

 

[drron]

We obviously travel too much to the USA-my food related emails have been from Red lobster,P F Changs and tony Romas.

 

[amaroo]

I think the spam situation is getting out of hand. I don't mean the kind that Woolworths used to stock,

They still sell it - much sought after staple these days

 

[serfty]

We obviously travel too much to the USA-my food related emails have been from Red lobster,P F Changs and tony Romas.

I got one from Maccas yesterday - haven't eaten there since last year's $1 burger promo and had uninstalled the app subsequently.

 

[Must...Fly!]

Now Im waiting for Geoff Harvey to start his usual "the internet is killing retail" BS. Remember when he said online shopping was a con

I reckon they would be doing OK. I certainly know of some businesses spending up on IT they hadn't needed before to keep the businesses going. Like paying for workstations for their staff to work from home. Certainly a friend of mine in London is in that scenario - company paying for brand new workstation so he can work from home until further notice. Not cheap!

 

[moa999]

People are definitely stopping eating out. Saw one local cafe say turnover is down 50%.

One small local restaurant that is eat-in only (on a large shared table) is starting up a takeaway service

Post automatically merged: Mar 17, 2020

reckon they would be doing OK. I

Short flash. HN sold out of deep freezers a week ago, but I think they will be hurting now

 

[flyingfan]

Now Im waiting for Geoff Harvey to start his usual "the internet is killing retail" BS. Remember when he said online shopping was a con

Gerry Harvey?

I got something from The Fat Duck in the UK, trying to tempt me with a £75 discount. I've been there once, nearly ten years ago (although I have been to Dinner at Crown more recently, don't know if they share databases - if not then it's scraping the bottom of the barrel).

 

[amaroo]

In this time off need we should all put aside our differences and egos, and focus on the problem. After all that’s what your PM (Scott Morrison) has done. He now just mimics what Jacinda does.

[Fine - I’ll stop]

NZ is two hours ahead of us