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Stanley Newman is now retired and lives with his wife in a condo. Economically the pandemic is affecting him only on paper. Those assets unless you need the income from the assets, they don’t affect your lifestyle. However, he knows he is one of the lucky ones because it is affecting many other people. He is sad about his inability to see his grandchildren and family close-up. He did a Zoom passover so he tries to stay in contact. It’s easy to get depressed so he keeps relatively busy taking courses and reading. It’s important to stay with routines.
He feels that low income people are probably most affected by the coronavirus pandemic for reasons he discusses. He says government can make an edict to go back to work, but, unless people have to work, people may not do it unless they feel comfortable that they are not threatened by the virus. People may be wary of crowds, and the economy will have a hard time coming back unless there is a vaccine that is reliable.
Testing isn’t the only answer because you can be tested negatively and get the virus the next day. It doesn’t prevent you from getting the virus. What’s important is if you test people and they are positive, you can quarantine them and then trace their contacts.
The question is whether the coronavirus pandemic will change our perception of how the society distributes income and access to housing and healthcare. The politics of the country really does matter. Maybe people will rethink the role of government.
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