Welcome to the first edition of APCO's Coronavirus Pulse, a regular global briefing on the impact of COVID-19 on businesses, economies, policy and culture, and how leaders are responding.
1. Health care, pharmaceutical, medical device and high tech industries among most impacted by supply chain issues due to quarantine,Harvard Business Review
2.What are the possible economic effects of COVID-19 on the world economy? Warwick Mckibbin’s scenarios, The Brookings Institute 3.Virus going global means China’s factories will get hit again,Bloomberg 4. Coronavirus and debt: A toxic mix, Financial Times 5. Virus spread emphasizes precariousness of gig economy work, Axios
Global Policy
1. Coronavirus: China’s risky plan to revive the economy,Financial Times
2.Coronavirus in Iran: A case of misinformation, conspiracy theories and propaganda,DW News
3.Japan unveils multibillion-dollar plan to support coronavirus-hit businesses,The Wall Street Journal
4.Despite aggressive measures, slow, unreliable testing shows Russia unready for coronavirus, Council on Foreign Relations
5.Trump’s aides drafting economic steps to fight virus fallout, including expansion of paid sick leave, help for companies facing disruption, Bloomberg
Control Measures
1. ‘The new normal’: China’s excessive coronavirus public monitoring could be here to stay,The Guardian
2. Italy extends emergency measures nationwide, BBC News
3. Coronavirus: Hong Kong to put anyone returning from Italy and parts of France and Germany under mandatory quarantine,South China Morning Post
4. Saudi Arabia, Israel tighten restrictions to counter virus,ABC News
5. EU Parliament cancels next Strasbourg session due to coronavirus,Politico
Events & Happenings
1. Coronavirus cancellations: Google, Microsoft workers told to stay home,NPR
3. The economic cost of major tech events canceled due to coronavirus has passed $1 billion,Vox
4. As schools close because of coronavirus, nearly 300 million kids aren’t in class,NPR
5. Gates Foundation, Mastercard, and Wellcome team up to fuel coronavirus drug development,Fortune
6. China’s coronavirus ‘victory’ in sight as Xi Jinping visits Wuhan,The Wall Street Journal
DIGITAL DISCUSSION
Misinformation about the virus is a leading topic on global social media, including millions of tweets. Social media platforms and messaging apps remain on the frontline of the spread of misinformation, while health organizations and certain governments push campaigns and establish specialty commissions to counter the effects. Experts fear that the spread of misinformation in regions currently less affected but where social media penetration is high, such as India and Africa, will lead to the rise of infections among vulnerable populations.
Companies can continue to help resist the spread of misinformation about the disease by continuing to guide employees to vetted sources such as the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO). In addition, corporations have the opportunity to play a vital role in raising awareness among their employees of the threat of misinformation around the coronavirus, in particular around the impacts of racial bias generated by early outbreak patterns.
AIRLINES GROUNDED
Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in China, airlines were the first to experience the most severe economic headaches. These headaches have only worsened as the virus spreads worldwide, with global demand falling amid announcements of new cases and travel advisories. All three major U.S. airlines have now removed their financial guidance for 2020, with American and Delta reducing flight capacity for domestic and international routes. In Europe, Flybe has been forced into administration and Lufthansa expects to cut up to half of its flights as a result of drastic declines in bookings.
The economic impact of the virus is expected to continue as airlines freeze hiring and encourage voluntary leave for staff. Several airline executives are moving ahead of the curve by reducing their pay, with Qantas' CEO and chairman taking no salary for the rest of the financial year. The economic knock-on effects have already spread beyond the airline industry to cause instability in the tourism sector and the wider services industry.
Stay Ahead: Insights from APCO
Most Americans view coronavirus as being serious, with a majority worried about contracting the virus.
9-in-10 view coronavirus as serious, with more than a third (38%) calling it “extremely serious” and more than a quarter (29%) “very serious.”
The public is worried about getting coronavirus by a 3:2 margin, with 60% “worried”, 40% “not”, and 24% or nearly a quarter “extremely worried.”
Two-thirds of U.S. workers have seen precautionary actions taken in their workplace, with 60% feeling COVID-19 will cause disruption this year. Expectations of employers focus on prevention.
Employers are seen doing things to address the spread of COVID-19 by a 3:2 margin.
The most common expectations workers have is that their employers should provide sanitation materials (47%) and instructions about precautions (43%).
Most working Americans see COVID-19 as likely to disrupt their workplace in 2020, with 30% seeing a “big” disruption and 30% predicting “some” disruption.
Webinar: Opinion Research Release on COVID-19
On Wednesday March 11 at 8:30-9:30 AM, ET join a free webinar and share in the release of new opinion research as the APCO and Oxford Analytica COVID-19 crisis response teams considers the business impacts of the coronavirus, and the actions that organizations can be taking to safeguard employees, operations, and reputation.
“For too long, the world has operated on a cycle of panic and neglect. We throw money at an outbreak, and when it’s over, we forget about it and do nothing to prevent the next one.”
- Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General World Health Organization
“There’s a lot of talk of the pathogen itself but…we need to be really clear here, the disease is not the only thing that spreads. You also get rumors and health hoaxes, misinformation, and emotional contagion as well, which can help the virus spread as well.”
- Dr. Seema Yasmin, Stanford University
“People need clear, concise, evidence-based messaging…right now I think people have this disconnect between what they’re hearing from public health authorities and what they’re hearing via tweet.”
- Dr. Craig Spencer, Director of Global Health in Emergency Medicine at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center
About Coronavirus Pulse
Coronavirus Pulse is a bulletin of updates and clippings from the most relevant media and government sources created to help APCO’s clients keep abreast of the impacts of COVID-19 from around the world. APCO is supporting clients in managing the issues they confront related the the outbreak. Contact our crisis team at Crisis360@apcoworldwide.com or +1.866.360.APCO (toll-free) or +1.866.483.2726 (outside the United States).
APCO Worldwide is an advisory and advocacy communications consultancy helping leading public and private sector organizations act with agility, and build organizational reputations, brands, relationships and solutions to succeed. APCO has offices in more than 30 major cities throughout the world. To find out how APCO’s integrated services can help your company or to subscribe to this newsletter, visit apcoworldwide.com/coronavirus.
