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The real “war” is in the “statistics” and how to interpret them. Safeguarding your health is just an aside.

Yes, the ‘local response is interesting and varied indeed. I live in Manila, a very large city in a supposed third world country; lockdown here was fast and seemed harsh at first…I along with many others really don’t think much of he Govt here and their ability to manage a bowel movement let alone a major public health crisis, but they did at least attempt to go hard and fast and have flattened the curve as far as that can be ascertained – no real testing here, for a population of 16 millon, so figures aren’t truly reliable. Population has remained inside, and mostly calm; fears for the poorest in the community have been mostly dampened by the actions of local mayors, some acting outside of supposed Fed govt guidelines, but acting in the interests of those who need food, money, basic sanitary supplies etc etc. Local businesses both big and small have also stepped up and worked with these same Mayors and local officials too. Fed Govt tries to issue edicts, but they seem a self interested bunch, and are often simply ignored; given that the President here – Duterte – is prone to solving every problem with a bullet (‘just kill them’), these local Mayors and even the Vice President are somewhat heroic, and, more so, they are effective too in helping people cope and survive the lockdown here. Lockdown was to be for one month only, and that should hold, at least in terms of opening the city to some movement in and out from smaller local businesses who really need to get back to being part of the supply chain. That is the advice from World Bank officials here, and I suspect it will be the path for the Fed Govt to take. With half the Western world just going into lockdowns now, it might even mean that he overall economic cost here – in some ways similar to other SE Asian countries and China – will be lessened through a growth in local market supply (less imports), and the economy might yet grow in terms of annual output this year, including growth in exports. I’m no fan of the constant growth model, but given the livelihoods of so many people here are marginalized at the best of times, I would be happy to see this happen. One thing you won’t see here is a move to digital currency, nor will you see a 5G roll out anytime soon either. I do suspect that the current political rulers will be damaged by their obvious attitude and behaviors of self entitlement and ‘privilege’ as demonstrated (once again lol) throughout this ‘crisis’. Duterte himself looks very ill IMO, and has been mostly impotent throughout the past 3 weeks. Will be interesting to see how far that plays out into the future, and whether voters demand change here, as they should! I think it is going to be very interesting to see how each country, region comes out of this plandemic, and just how much influence the 99% can reintroduce into the politics of their individual countries. I want to be an optimist, but sometimes that is hard; as an Aussie expat, watching the populace there go from massive community support for bushfire affected communities to punch up’s in shops over toilet paper is on reason to think there are still way too many sheeple out there 🙂