The other upcoming pandemic

Restaurants, bars, movie theaters, parks and basically any public and private venue where people gather will be essentially empty as of today.

Schools across Imperial Valley, including Imperial Valley College and the local campus of San Diego State University, have canceled classes, while municipal, state and federal government agencies are controlling public access to services.

All because of the novel coronavirus, which originated the Wuhan region in China, where authorities chose to ignore the problem in the first instance before it got out of control and spread to dozens of other nations, leaving the planet on the verge of paranoia. This, despite the fact that no cases of local transmission have been detected in the region.

County officials have instructed older adults to stay home during the crisis, which hopefully will end later this historically unforgettable month. Otherwise, a health, social and political crisis could bring unprecedented consequences. The official order simply seeks to prevent the spread of the disease locally, which would put the Imperial Valley health system on edge.

If provisions go ignored, violators would face fines, jail or a combination of both, applied by the Sheriff Office and police departments. Practically, the county is under Martial Law until at least March 31. In fact, the state government announced preparations for the possible deployment of the California National Guard if necessary.

The health and political problem for federal, state and municipal governments is the rapid rate of contagion among the American population. Between March 13 and March 16, the number of confirmed cases ballooned from 1,264 to 3,536, according to data from the World Health Organization. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday over 10,000 cases and dozens of deaths. However, the CDC reports most of those cases are under investigation, with very little infected locally.

It should be noted that WHO tracks other more lethal diseases that do not pose any problem for authorities and world economies. Even the flu will kill between 22,000 and 55,000 Americans this season.

For days, restaurants like the Jack in the Box located on Rockwood Avenue in Calexico, have unilaterally decided to stop serving their customers on-site and only fill take-out orders. Dozens of local restaurants are in the same situation, leaving hundreds or perhaps even thousands of workers jobless, at least temporarily.

The problem of social isolation, which according to the official narrative is necessary to prevent the situation from worsening, will lead to unemployment reaching historic levels not seen in decades. JP Morgan expects California will lose over 600,000 jobs due to the quarantine, and other specialists estimate that unemployment will go from the current 3.6 percent to 20 percent nationwide.

In the Imperial Valley, until last January the unemployment level was 18.8 percent, the second highest in California, only behind Colusa County. The level of unemployment derived from the 2019 coronavirus at the local level will depend on how quickly normality returns to the country.

And while the world watches in amazement the spread of the coronavirus in the world, international markets register a resounding decline that specialists attribute to the health crisis. On Monday markets registered declines of 12 percent because President Donald Trump said the crisis could last until the summer, leading investors to extreme nervousness. Again on Wednesday markets plummeted and authorities announced all transactions will become virtual due to the virus.

The rush of the markets at the same time represents a loss of thousands of dollars in retirement account funds for millions of workers who have placed their retirement money in the shares of publicly-traded companies. This situation of declining share prices represents an opportunity for investors such as Warren Buffet, chairman of the Berkshire Hathaway firm, which has made a fortune with the acquisition of low-priced securities in times of crisis to see accumulated significant profits with the passage of time and the increase in share prices.

For its part, the Federal Reserve plans to implement a series of measures to return the market to normal as soon as possible, with a package that could reach a trillion dollars, of which a quarter would be assigned to distribute stimulus checks financially for taxpayers to boost spending.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates that the Chinese economy (the world’s manufacturing leader) will lose close to one percentage point of growth due to the virus, and the world economy will lose half a percentage point. The agency clarifies that this loss of economic growth could be much greater if the virus continues its upward trend and governments are prevented from solving the problem.

Fortunately, some Imperial Valley homes have enough toilet paper in the meantime.