THE CORONA VIRUS THREAT – THE ISSUE OF RE-OPENING OUR ECONOMIES OR CONTINUING THE “LOCK-DOWN” AND THE BUSINESS IMPLICATIONS OF THIS UNCERTAINTY
Over the last few months, almost all countries in the world have been faced with the challenge of how to handle the threat from the highly contagious coronavirus. The governments of most countries have elected to “close down” their economies, at least to some degree, so as to contain the spread of the virus, and thereby also to “flatten the curve” of those that might be in need of hospital support as a consequence of the virus. Some governments reacted more quickly than others when it came to imposing rules for societal lockdowns, thereby apparently contributing significantly to a more successful (initial) management of the virus, including saving lives. Other countries have decided not to impose such stringent lockdown rules, relying instead on the belief that their populations would become self-immunised through exposure to the virus (Sweden) or that this pandemic might not be that serious after all (Brazil, Mexico). But Sweden, guided principally by the leading epidemiologist Dr Anders Tegnell, seems to have been largely unsuccessful so far, with a death toll (as of 6 June 2020) of more than 4,500, while its closest neighbouring country, Norway, had less than 10 percent of that figure. Norway’s population is about half that of Sweden, at around 5.4 million, versus Sweden’s approximately 10 million.
There is undoubtedly a lot of tension among experts from both sides when it comes to closing down (or, now, continuing to keep fairly closed) versus reopening. Typical arguments from the closing-down side are, “We cannot deny the data,” or, “Human lives have infinite value.” Typical counterarguments from the reopening side are, “We must salvage the economy, and ameliorate extreme recessionary effects,” as well as, “Economic recession (as a result of not reopening) might lead
