The world must \u201cwake up and consider this enemy virus as public enemy number one,\u201d WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters while\u00a0attending a news conference on the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in Geneva<\/a>, Switzerland February 11, 2020. Tedros Adhanom added that \u201cIf the world doesn\u2019t want to wake up and consider the virus as public enemy number one, I don\u2019t think we will learn from our lessons.\u201d<\/p>\n Now that the global death toll from the deadly Wuhan coronavirus has topped\u00a0900, officially surpassing the 2002-03 SARS outbreak, and companies have begun massive layoffs, with industries desperately looking to shift trends and investments, we start to wonder if we truly are before a new public enemy, one that instead of haunting the streets, it invades our Twitter and Facebook feeds as well as our sentiments on traveling and certain demonyms.<\/p>\n Effects have already been seen worldwide, and especially\u00a0when\u00a0China is the European Union\u2019s second-biggest trading partner, the world’s leading exporter, accounting for a fifth of global GDP, and central to a diverse range of global supply chains.\u00a0According to the Financial Times<\/a>, to attend this matter and avoid slowing down productions, China\u2019s State Council has urged critical industries \u2014 such as aviation \u2014 to resume operations as soon as possible. Cities like Beijing and Shanghai have seen their citizens turn to home-office to continue productivity, but companies like electronics manufacturing giant Foxconn have only partially restarted their production. And while these decisions seem logical, the expected delay in getting Foxconn\u2019s factories back up and running could reportedly hurt the world\u2019s iPhone supply, according to The New York Post<\/a>.\u00a0Qualcomm,\u00a0the world’s biggest maker of smartphone chips, has also warned the world population that the outbreak was causing “significant” uncertainty around demand for smartphones.<\/p>\n CNN Business stated<\/a> that car plants across China have been ordered to remain closed following the Lunar New Year holiday, preventing global automakers\u00a0Volkswagen,\u00a0Toyota,\u00a0Daimler,\u00a0General Motors,\u00a0Renault,\u00a0Honda and\u00a0Hyundai\u00a0from resuming operations in the world’s largest car market.\u00a0Luxury goods makers, which rely on Chinese consumers who spend big at home and while on vacation, have also been hit. British brand\u00a0Burberry\u00a0has closed 24 of its 64 stores in mainland China.<\/p>\n The struggle has inevitably turned international, and it\u2019s now hitting foreign pockets. According to a study by the\u00a0<\/strong>World Bank<\/a>, a severe pandemic could cause economic losses equal to nearly 5% of global GDP, or more than $3 trillion. Why? Because as supply chains are diverted and travel methods are cut, the\u00a0GDP growth of select countries is at risk, especially when uncertainty reigns as there is no efficient flow of accurate information within countries and across borders.<\/p>\n According to GZERO and Bloomberg<\/a>, countries like South Korea, Brazil, Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, India, and the US\u00a0 are among the countries experiencing a slash into their growth forecast for both the first quarter and the full year.\u00a0China\u2019s real gross domestic product is now forecast to grow 5.8% this year, according to the median result in a Bloomberg survey<\/a>. That\u2019s down from 5.9% in January 2020.<\/p>\n Of course, the tragedy of some is the benefit of others, and some industries are before\u00a0a big marketing opportunity<\/a>\u00a0that can give them\u00a0a substantial short-term bump. Big drugmakers like Inovio, Johnson & Johnson, Novavax, Moderna, and GSK are all\u00a0working\u00a0on coronavirus treatments and seeing their stocks rise as an urgent vaccines or treatment is being awaited, however according to TIME Magazine<\/a>, health officials say a vaccine version may take three months to be available for the first stages of human testing while developing an effective vaccine generally takes years.<\/p>\n Despite the notorious shifts it has already caused, the outbreak might get \u201csomewhat worse\u201d before it gets better, according to Janez Lenarcic, European commissioner for crisis management, especially in terms of economic aspirations and readiness for the short, medium, and long term.<\/p>\n \u201cWith regard to this epidemic, Chinese factories are affected, and that, by definition, affects global chains and the global economy. But our paramount priority should be devoted to public health measures, and the economic consequences are of course secondary, although not unimportant,\u201d he said<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.ceo-na.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Screen-Shot-2020-02-11-at-16.49.26.png\")
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