Pandemic

As the coronavirus continues to spread, it’s impact has been felt here.  A number of my friends and colleagues have cancelled trips to Europe scheduled in the next few months.  And just today we got an e-mail telling us to postpone or reschedule any non-essential business travel - and that includes domestic travel.  I’m starting to worry about my vacation plans this year, as I have friends and family supposed to be visiting me this year – but depending on how the disease spreads, it might not be a good idea to travel.  I suspect it will be a case of when, rather than if, it hits the UK.  We can definitely expect things to get worse in the US – I think San Francisco has already declared a state of emergency, and I’m sure other cities will follow (particularly those with large Chinese populations – like Seattle).  The virus has also had an unwelcome side effect of hitting shares, and hence my retirement nest egg, hard.  Though ironically my company is actually one of the very few whose share price has gone up over the last few days, because we are one of several biotechnology companies working on a cure.  This feels like a big deal and like we’re living a real life movie – like the the film Contagion.  The next virus that China releases on an unsuspecting world will be even worse, maybe more like 28 Days Later!  And the scaremongering has already started – one of my colleagues has already said that I should start stockpiling canned food.  Wow, so someone here is already going all in on the doomsday scenario.