CovOps
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 |  Subject: Fuck 'em: Coronavirus Sends Hollywood Into Unprecedented Crisis  Wed Mar 11, 2020 8:58 pm | |
| The cancellation of SXSW on March 6 due to the coronavirus epidemic sent shockwaves through the entertainment industry. But in truth it was the culmination of weeks of mounting anxiety — in executive suites and corporate boardrooms, on studio lots, across television and film sets, at red-carpet premieres and in multiplexes and concert venues — that has left Hollywood fearfully staring into an abyss of uncertainty.
No conversation, it seems, is complete without at least some reference to a public health crisis so widespread and world-altering that it could have been the plot of a blockbuster thriller. And actually, it was — 2011’s “Contagion,” directed by Steven Soderbergh, became one of the most rented movies on iTunes last week. But now, it’s all too terribly real, with 4,262 reported deaths worldwide, and 118,583 confirmed cases — at least, as of press time. Those numbers will have increased by the time this story is published.
Much as the spread of the virus now referred to as COVID-19 has been staggered across the globe, so has the reaction to it. Parts of Asia have been on lockdown for weeks, Italy recently shut down the entire nation and several European countries have also seriously considered lockdowns. Despite the cancellation of major communal events, the U.S. remains largely in a nervous, wait-and-see posture, with everyday business certainly interrupted but still moving forward.
But the brutal math of viral pandemics (though the CDC has yet to define the outbreak in such terms) is at once impossible to escape and frustratingly tough to nail down for certain. On the same day of SXSW’s cancellation, biologist Liz Specht posted a widely read Twitter thread in which she forecast as many as 4 million COVID-19 cases in the U.S. by mid-May, and 2 to 6 billion cases worldwide by July.
Specht’s calculations, however, appear to be a worst-case scenario. “While well-intentioned, these forecasts are still assumptions, some of which are based on misleading data,” says Patricia Sung, epidemiologist and manager of infection prevention at the University of Southern California’s Verdugo Hills Hospital. Sung stresses that businesses should look to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local health departments for guidance. The CDC, however, has not yet ventured a concrete prediction for how bad the virus’ spread in the U.S. could get. As of March 9, the CDC’s coronavirus website stated in carefully vague terms that “for the majority of people, the immediate risk of being exposed to the virus that causes COVID-19 is thought to be low.”
Suffice it to say, it’s difficult to fathom just how massive an impact this epidemic will have on the world, especially the entertainment industry, a multibillion-dollar business built on a foundation of public gatherings and routine travel. One thing, at least, is clear: Should the virus continue to spread on its current trajectory, Americans need only look across the Atlantic to Europe to grasp their immediate future, and across the Pacific to Asia to see where things will ultimately lead.
https://variety.com/2020/film/news/hollywood-coronavirus-entertainment-industry-movies-festivals-1203529795/
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RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space
Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
| | Subject: Re: Fuck 'em: Coronavirus Sends Hollywood Into Unprecedented Crisis Wed Mar 11, 2020 10:41 pm | |
| Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson have coronavirus: Sixty-three-year-old actor announces they have caught the virus while filming in Australia and describes how it gave them 'chills and body aches'
Actor Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, they revealed Wednesday evening.
The Forrest Gump actor and his wife, both 63, announced the positive test results on Instagram urging the public to 'take care'.
The couple is currently in Gold Coast, Australia where the Oscar-winner is filming for an untitled Baz Luhrmann-directed Elvis Presley film produced by Warner Bros.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8102785/Tom-Hanks-wife-Rita-Wilson-test-positive-coronavirus.html |
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