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[Replaced_Texan]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

A month ago it was Wuhan that was feeling the pain; by last week the streets of Venice and Rome were empty. If a lot of people get sick in coastal cities, a lot of people are going to get sick in the heartland, and it's not going to take very long. As always, I am impressed by your Marxist conviction that politics follows so directly from economics, but this is a case where I think you're missing something. I'm not sure whether the epidemic is going to cause people to rally to authoritarianism or turn them off Trump's particular combination of braggadocio and incompetence, but I think the political impact will be sui generis and not simply a function of pocketbook issues. Though I do think we're going to get a recession out of this, but I wouldn't assume that people will react the way they ordinarily do in a recession.

I went to Chinatown for soup dumplings yesterday and half the parking lot, a parking lot one usually has to circle at least six or seven times to find a space, was half empty. My yoga studio sent out a message today saying they're pulling all of the props, they're no longer doing hands-on assists, and telling people to stay away if they're not feeling 100% healthy (at the start of allergy season). I've heard rumblings about how SXSW and the Rodeo should be cancelled. I know people delaying buying tickets for trips "just to see what happens before pulling the trigger."

And the only cases in Texas so far are the ones in quarantine from the cruise ship. In a few weeks, if this spreads (and I see no reason why it won't), the hit to the economy is going to be even greater.