01 COVID-19 Basics - John Bulloch

01-01 Memories

This pandemic will change us forever. Ask the old folks about WW1, the Spanish Flu, the Great Depression and WW2. There are coronavirus lessons from history.My grandfather came home from WW1 in 1917 with his lungs damaged from mustard gas. He had a range of other health problems from living in the trenches, which he…

01-02 Small Business

15% of small firms could disappear as a result of the coronavirus. But they will all be replaced by new ventures. It is good news to hear Dan Kelly, the President of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), announce successful efforts to refine government wage subsidies and guaranteed loan programs to help the maximum…

01-03 Communities

Small firms are reaching out to people during the Coronavirus pandemic because of the emotional ties they have to their communities. Dr. Li Wenliang’s story is a “heart-breaker”. He warned the authorities in Wuhan, China in December 2019 that he had treated seven patients with a new virus that looked a lot like the former…

01-04 Social Stability

Expect higher government spending, patriotic bonds and patriotic taxes after the pandemic. In 1967 I took my family for a tour of Northern Ireland, which is part of Britain; and the independent state of Ireland, which was referred to as Southern Ireland. Northern Ireland because my father had “cousins by the dozens”, and southern Ireland…

01-05 Education

The pandemic is increasing online learning and decreasing travel and foreign students. Colleges and universities are being squeezed. Something like 13 nations have closed schools completely during the pandemic. Tough for parents who depend on schools to provide special education, or for impoverished families relying on their kids getting a nutritious meal. And these viruses…

01-06 Herd Immunity

Politics 101. Don’t introduce anything weird during an election. Herd Immunity is what you get when say 60% of the population are vaccinated against a virus. Injecting healthy people with weak strains of Covid-19 is questionable public health policy and crazy politics. The photo is silly. The chap with the coffee does not have herd…

01-07 Belgium

Belgium pandemic mortality numbers are the highest in the world. Partly because their numbers include people who die in nursing homes as well as those who die in hospitals. It suggests other nation’s numbers are understated. The Covid-19 pandemic is global and transformational. So it is natural that professionals are trying to learn from one…