It’s actually getting to the stage where more people are going to be hurt and die thanks to the reactions to the COVID-19 than from the bug itself.

I’ve already written about the economic impacts on human health, but the following is an example of where a government can go if it does not know how to balance priorities of care for people.

It’s an announcement from the Administration of the city of Philadelphia about suspending its public services. That’s fair enough for most services, including the section on the Police, which specifies the crimes for which they will no longer arrest people, merely detaining them for identification and then letting them go. Even that is fair enough for some crimes but look at that list:

  • All Narcotics Offenses
  • Theft from persons
  • Retail Theft
  • Theft from auto
  • Burglary
  • Vandalism
  • Stolen Auto

This is the sort of thing to remember the next time somebody tells you that you really don’t need to be able to defend yourself in modern society because we’ve got the Police for that.

It’s probably time to re-visit  The Five Stages of Collapse:

  1. Financial Collapse. Faith in “business as usual” is lost.
  2. Commercial Collapse. Faith that “the market shall provide” is lost.
  3. Political Collapse. Faith that “the government will take care of you” is lost.
  4. Social Collapse. Faith that “your people will take care of you” is lost.
  5. Cultural Collapse. Faith in the goodness of humanity is lost.

These photos were taken by my wife yesterday at our local Countdown here in Auckland. Not quite as crazy as we’re seeing overseas but it seems to be building up as today’s situation was worse, with the Supermarket carparks as filled as would normally be seen only at Christmas.

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And now, as of 1:25pm, my oldest kid’s university has canned his May graduation. There’s another in September but it will be packed so likely no tickets for extra family members beyond Mum and Dad!

The good news – at least for Air NZ – is that I wasted $150 on getting another child flown up for the graduation from Wellington. I realise that’s not much in the face of a potential $5 billion drop in revenue but it all helps. Perhaps they’ll still be flying planes by the time we get to early May: I sense that Air NZ could soon be returning to 100% SOE status.