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Restaurants, bars, gyms, breweries are shut down in NJ

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Depending on how long this lasts, small business will fold. I know many of the owners of the local businesses, some of whom are my friends, will be impacted.
I know the pandemic will pass but the economic impact to these local businesses, some of which have been around decades, will be significant. New Jersey is nearing a total shutdown.

Are food delivery workers at risk

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By the time you fall ill, you have been likely carrying the disease and infecting others for a while.

In America;

  • over 50% of the workforce are working paycheck to paycheck,
  • 40% of Americans don’t have $400 in the bank for emergency expenses,
  • 27.5% have no healthcare coverage and the remainder with insurance still worry about how much of the cost will actually be covered and paid by insurance.

Under these conditions;

  • are people going to stay home when they start exhibiting the early symptoms?
  • will they stop working and self isolate themselves?
  • If you and your family were as close to financial ruin as I just described, would you?

Just remember this when you;

  • catch an Uber or Lyft or Ola or even a Taxi, have your food delivered through Uber Eats, Door Dash or even Dominos,
  • take receipt of that new gizmo that you ordered from Amazon.

I’ve certainly thought about this a lot over the last few days.

Schools and universities closings throw students into panic

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My eldest child is a junior at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. On 10 March, Rutgers University announced it was suspending all classes and students must leave campus and prepare to work online for the remainder of the semester. Beginning Thursday, 12 March at 7 PM Rutgers University will shut off student access keycards for residence halls. Students were given two days notice. I am working in New York City that day, so my wife is doing the heavy lifting. Because the dorms will be locked, my child will be returning with all belongings.

Beginning Thursday, March 12, through the end of spring break on Sunday, March 22, all classes are cancelled. Beginning Monday, March 23, through at least Friday, April 3, all course instruction will be delivered remotely. All face-to-face instruction is suspended. This includes any class meetings. Individual instructors are expected to be in contact with their students regarding their plans for remote instruction prior to March 23.

But wait, there’s more, the Rutgers University Biomedical and Health Sciences department is like “whatever”.

Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences -- the division at Rutgers that includes the medical, dental, pharmacy and other health-related schools -- is not cancelling classes. NJ.com

Scaremongering and panicked decision making for sure.

Oberlin College (Ohio), where my second child is a freshman, has given students until 18 March, two days earlier than originally scheduled, to get the f**K out and also prepare to take classes online. Oberlin College is an 8-hour drive from where we live in New Jersey, and again, we will be returning with all belongings. What this means for us, instead of picking up our child for spring break on a weekend, we both lose two days of work time. I am an hourly consultant and Bjavana is an hourly office manager. Our child is also very stressed out about if she'll be able to complete all her coursework online should the school stay closed until the end of the semester. Do we get our money back for the food and housing we paid for?

We have a privileged life. My children will be able to return home and we have fast and reliable broadband. But what about all the students who do not?

International students and students from far-away States must be shitting their pants.

Students in poor school districts are even more f**ked.

This is a panic caused by panic.