As Spain, France Top 1 Million Virus Cases, Half Of European SMEs May Be Gone In 12 Months
The COVID containment effort is in shambles across Europe, where officials are now grappling with the harsh reality of a serious second wave which, in at least some respects, is worse than the first.
Germany, Poland, Hungary, and Romania all reported record infections. 98 people died of COVID (or complications from COVID) in the past 24 hours in Romania, the deadliest day yet for the country. In Poland, new cases rose 21% from the previous day, which was itself a record. Like Romania, the count
Echoes of the influenza pandemic of 1918-19. History doesn’t repeat, but it often rhymes.
If only the world had better information systems to report, diagnose and manage the global economy. There is too little data and that which does exist is often not accurate. Reminds me of manufacturing in the 1960’s.
Not being sarcastic here, but central bank digital currency, with transactions that are tracked, would provide real-time analytics on exactly how well, or poorly, revenue is doing at SMEs. Implementation of tracking apps from cell phone data would also help re notifications about contact with COVID-positive individuals, or cluster.
Not advocating for these solutions. The privacy battle was lost a decade ago. We could do more and better. I expect that a post-COVID world will move toward transparent…privacy.
I’ll say this, though, if I knew that no COVID-positive individuals had entered or patronized my local coffee shop in the past two weeks (obviously, children and non-phone enabled citizens aside), I’d patronize them myself. As is, I haven’t stepped foot inside since Feb 2020. If I had had better information, I’d maybe have been going there four or five times per week since July.