| At this writing, we have at least 100 Americans suffering from Coronavirus, with at least six people in Washington State having died from the infection. And as the impact of the virus becomes more obvious, it’s increasingly clear that there will be more events impacted, directly or indirectly by fears of the virus.
As we reported, the first international event to fall in the outdoor space was IWA 2020. With U.S. companies scrambling about what to do with show assets already on the ground in Germany, the organization hadn’t really offered much in the way of assistance in decision-making other than saying the event would be staged “at a later date in 2020”. If you’re a U.S. gun company with a ticking clock on how long your firearms can remain in Germany, that’s not much consolation.
Today, we’re told IWA will be held in September- and it appears arrangements have been made to accommodate companies who are now looking at rebooking, re-shipping or rescheduling virtually everything associated with this very significant show.
And it appears the virus that knocked the recovery out of the stock markets may be abating. Yesterday, stocks staged their biggest single-day recover ever, picking up more than 1,200 points in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Despite the Dow, however, there’s not much doubt that the coronavirus will continue to impact everything from fishing -where baits and components may get scarce later in the year- to smartphone repairs.
Right now, there are reported cases of coronavirus in eleven states: Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oregon, Rhode Island, New York, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin.
But U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams is still cautioning people not to panic. “Caution is appropriate,” Adams says, “Preparedness is appropriate. Panic is not.”
Despite that, you’ll notice there are some things getting downright hard-to-find on the shelves in your local pharmacy: latex gloves and paper N-95 surgical masks. Those, we’re told, are being stockpiled in two places: the manufactures and households where residents are hoarding them “just in case.”
3M and other companies are churning out the masks as rapidly as they can make them, asking their customers to “stop buying them up so healthcare workers can have the equipment they really need.”
Yesterday, President Trump met with pharmaceutical executives and encouraged them to work toward development of a coronavirus vaccine. But even if they quickly come up with something workable, it will take months to get into widespread distribution.
Mr. Trump also hinted that he may broaden travel restrictions in an effort to help minimize the threat in the United States. At this point, the United States has cautioned against any “nonessential” travel to China and Iran, and is prohibiting entry to their citizens. But there are also concerns about travel to/from South Korea (the second-most cases) and Italy (where cases grew by 50% over the weekend). Italian health officials are bringing doctors out of retirement and accelerating nursing program graduations to help with an overwhelmed public health system.
Here’s one health watch notice we bet many of you haven’t seen yet. Purina Animal Nutrition has issued what is described as a massive recall across four of its brands after consumer reports of pets and animals falling ill.
The company says it’s detected elevated calcium levels in the foods, and that can cause severe health issues, or even death, in rabbits, young chickens and turkeys.
A statement from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says “elevated calcium carbonate levels can cause health issues and mortality in rabbits. Continued feeding of these products may result in death as a result of feed refusal. Elevated calcium carbonate levels in young chickens and turkeys can lead to leg abnormalities and kidney calcification.”
The recalled products are: Purina Rabbit Feed, Purina Turkey Feed, Country Acres Rabbit Feed and DuMORE Chick Starter/Grower Feed.
If you’re a farmer, you’ll recognize one or more of them.
The products in question were produced from December 16, 2019, to February 3, 2020, and sold in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Nebraska, South Dakota, Florida, Virginia, North Dakota, North Carolina, South Carolina, Colorado, California, West Virginia, Texas, Hawaii and Arizona.
A list of the formula, item and lot numbers can be found on the FDA’s website at:
https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts/purina-animal-nutrition-voluntarily-recalling-select-lot-codes-purinarrabbit-feed-purinar-turkey.
We’ll keep you posted. |
