Coronavirus: The Chances that NYC May Close Schools

Four days ago, I would have thought a post like this to be ridiculous.  Coronavirus is not, afterall, nearly as deadly as the Flu. 80% of patients who have the virus report only mild symptoms before getting on with their lives. The SARS outbreak, ten years ago, led NYC schools only to issue hand sanitizer to every school. Most of all, the press making a big deal about it seem only to be a desperate attempt at selling more papers through shocking and scaring readers and viewers and, when you looked at where the virus was a real danger, it was only in nations on the other side of the world with poor leadership.  was only in nations on the other side of the world and New York has strict protocols in place for people entering and leaving the nation.

Then three days ago, the NYSE began to slide and news reports indicated investor fears (from the virus) had lead to it.

Then two days ago, Japan closed schools for one month (here). Surface level news readers were shocked because, after all, closing schools for a whole month seems drastic. But more thoughtful news viewers were shocked to learn that schools were not closed because of health concerns but because of economic concerns, which the Times reporting the government is "is under pressure to act decisively to preserve the Tokyo Olympics."

They don't want to lose the economic dollars. So they closed schools -for a month!. Wow.

And then., yesterday, Fox 5 reported "NYSE could close trading floor in coronavirus contingency".

"The New York Stock Exchange is preparing for the possible escalation of the novel coronavirus crisis that might include closing the trading floor in Lower Manhattan, according to Fox Business.

Should the outbreak of COVID-19 escalate into a global pandemic, as is expected, then markets and firms are concerned that traders and other employees might not be able to get to work."

I do think this is just may be just click bait. The NY Daily News had a similar headline which they change after only four hours of being online (The original headline the had was "NYSE preparing for the possibility of closing the floor due to coronavirus crisis: report" was later changed to "Amid stock market jitters, NYSE ‘carefully monitoring the spread’ of CONVID-19’. Something like switch the headline after publication only happens after someone in the news room had second thoughts. That's a clear sign a clickbait).

What isn't clickbait is the fact that CNN also reported yesterday that WHO seems to think the the risk of the spread is "very high" (here).


These represent very fast moving events. Fast moving events change peoples' mindset in a very fast way. I remember the economic meltdown over ten years ago. Those were fast moving events as well. It took just four days (and the collapse of an investment bank) to change the mindsets of everyone in New York (and  the world). I wonder how long may it be before everyone's mindset changes again?


After all, last Tuesday, I thought even talking about this to be ridiculous. But that was before a whole nation shut their schools -for a month- because they were worried about the economy. I give NYC a 4 in ten chance that schools will close for at least one week.