Earlier this month, a new mysterious coronavirus was discovered in the Chinese city of Wuhan and it is believed to have originated from the city’s Huanan Seafood Market which sold live poultry and exotic animal meats until it was closed down and disinfected following the outbreak of the virus. At first, it was thought that the virus was only capable of spreading from animals to humans, but health officials now know that human transmission is possible which raises concerns about public health. The number of reported cases has risen to over 200 with isolated cases appearing in Thailand, Japan, and Korea (all of these people originated from Wuhan), and while twenty-five people have recovered from this coronavirus, the death toll is up to three. Given the escalation of this issue, some are concerned that China might try to cover up the severity or the extent of the virus like they did with the deadly SARS outbreak in the early 2000s that infected over 8000 people (some of whom resided in the US) and killed over 700 people, although it seems like China is being pretty transparent about the developments of this outbreak.
Discussion Questions
1. If the number of people infected by this coronavirus continues to grow how do you think that would affect China’s trade relations with other countries and/or Asia’s tourism?
2. Should more be done to try to get countries to eliminate markets such as the Huanan Seafood Market where there are higher risks of humans contracting harmful viruses?
3. What do you think the US can do to ensure that infectious diseases don’t spread to the US from other countries?
I think that if the virus spreads/becomes big enough, it will definitely impact both China's trader relations and tourism. As long as the virus is up in the air, people will continue to be worried about catching it themselves, further resulting in them avoiding exposure to it - both in person, and the goods that are bought from there. Additionally, as far as getting countries to eliminate market such as the Hunan Seafood Market, I don't think they should or need to be completely eliminated. However, I do think that because these markets are dealing with live and raw seafood, the market should focus more on the cleanliness and sanitation of their products and markets as a whole. The government of China should also have a role in ensuring that the products being sold are free from viruses like the coronavirus. Also, in order to ensure that that infectious diseases do not spread form the US to other countries, the government should make sure to monitor trade with other countries closely, along with informing individuals about the diseases in these other countries, in an effort to prevent travel there.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think it will affect China’s trade relations with other countries too much, unless they’re trading seafood or something along those lines. However, this outbreak will affect the tourism, especially if the media covers the cases a lot and give it a lot of attention because it will cause people from other countries to fear having the virus spread. I don’t know a lot about these markets, but from what I’ve heard and seen, I think there could be more sanitation regulations, however, I don’t think these markets should be eliminated.
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ReplyDeleteIn terms of China's trade relations, if the virus grows larger and affects an increasing number of people, I definitely think that they will decrease significantly and may take a large enough toll in order to affect their economy as well. As the virus has been reported to have infected a man in Washington, I believe that the governement of the US will be very hesitant in terms of travelers coming from certain parts of Asia as well as resort to reducing the amount of seafood and other animal product imports from China. In terms of the markets, I do not think they should be eliminated, but rather that more regulations need to be enforced in relation to hygiene. To ensure that the virus does not continue to spread, I think that the emphasis of sanitation and cleanliness needs to be publicized not only within supermarkets and restaurants, but within homes as well.
ReplyDeleteI don't think this outbreak would affect trade relations, at least not long-term, thought it may dent tourism in the short term. Particularly vulnerable is the 2020 Tokyo Olympics since this coronavirus may last six months based on the length of the similar SARS virus outbreak in the early 2000s. My family is also closely monitoring the situation as we may have to drop a planned early summer trip to Guangdong province from our travel plans. I don't think there's much the US can do to control the spread of infectious diseases such as this (in fact the virus has already reached Washington State as the CDC reported earlier today) but quarantining known individuals until their illness is over is generally a good step. As for the presumed source of this virus, markets like Huanan are commonplace in China, so it is hard to imagine any kind of regulation having a noticeable impact without massive government efforts to crack down on them. Plus, the unsanitary conditions in these markets, which are created by the combination of dirty never-cleaned floors/walls and street vendors selling food without permits, exist because funding routine cleanup operations and/or certifications would make many vendors' businesses much less profitable, so there must be some compensation offered if improvements in hygiene are to be made.
ReplyDelete1. I agree with Kevin: while many tourists are certainly going to be scared off by the threat of the coronavirus, any epidemic would not be terribly relevant to most industries unless all its workers were dropping dead. Even for industries like seafood as Marisa suggested, for instance shrimp trawling (although I believe that's more of a Thai industry), it's unlikely a significant chunk of the seafood would pass through infected areas. And even if there are consumer worries about the provenance of their seafood, most are too lazy to do any research, hence I wouldn't consider this a significant factor.
ReplyDelete2. I do think there should be more efforts at eliminating seafood and meat markets like these, not because of any disease concerns, but because of how they're used to traffic illegally-hunted wildlife products like shark and manta ray fins. Diseases that would not proliferate under any conditions if these markets were eliminated are very slim, although one could see a link between the spread of diseases like Ebola and the bushmeat trade. So the answer to the question is yes, but not for the reason suggested.
3. Institute mandatory screenings of every passenger arriving in the US, and forcibly ship back any who appear to be infected, who don't have adequate vaccinations, and so on.
Tourism should be hurt by the coronavirus. From what I know, however, China seems to be handling the outbreak well. Quarantines are effective and China would be wise to put them in place in order for this outbreak to blow over. As for how the US will keep its population unaffected, Ryan's suggestion was pretty good. If the US really wants to stay coronavirus-free, the federal government isn't shy about placing travel bans on certain people. This could be a practical use for it.
ReplyDeleteI do not think this will effect China's trade relations because so many countries, like the US, rely on goods from China; however I do agree that the conronavirus will hurt tourism, at least for now. There should be more done to have health inspection and regulations so that businesses stay sanitary and make sure that vendors have permits. However, getting vendors to abide by these conditions would be difficult and I do not think other countries will want to go through the trouble. The US could prevent the spread of viruses from other countries by developing a vaccination, similarly to how people get malaria shots before traveling.
ReplyDeleteAt the moment, I do not think that Coronavirus will do any harm to China's trade relations with other countries. However, this virus could be a big factor in decreased numbers of tourists in China. If the coronavirus continues to grow, Asia's tourism especially to those countries with people affected will decrease. Due to events like this, I think there should be more things done to get countries to eliminate markets such as the Huanan Seafood Market. Even though there have been 3 deaths so far, I think a larger outbreak would influence countries to eliminate them. As of now, I don't think countries will be willing to take action on markets like this. The US could put travel bans to prevent the spreading of this disease. Another way to stop the infectious disease from spreading to the US and eventually other countries could be the creation of a vaccination.
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely important that China takes this coronavirus seriously and proceeds with the necessary precautions to ensure that the disease does not spread. Other countries should become aware of the situations in China and determine if they want to continue trade. Asia’s trade and tourism would likely decrease and this would be expected because no one wants to put themselves at risk of attracting a disease. I don’t think we should be trying to eliminate such markets in other countries, because cultures and lifestyles are very different between countries. Education on the harmful effects could be spread or we could choose to no longer trade with such countries, but I think it's up to them what types of markets they want to have. The US already has a very strict procedure when it comes to getting shipments from other countries. Diseases are prone to happen to all countries, I don't think there is anything the US could really do to stop the spread of diseases other than to cut off trade.
ReplyDeleteIn response to your first question, if the number of people infected by the coronavirus continues to increase, I believe that China's trade relations with many countries will be severed or at least restricted because countries won't want the virus spreading to their own people. By temporarily ending trade relations or imposing trade restrictions with China, countries will be taking precautions to prevent the coronavirus from spreading any further. I also believe that tourism to China or Asia in general will decrease dramatically as a result of this outbreak since people won't want to have the virus themselves.
ReplyDeleteI think it's really interesting how the comments developed over time: concern seems to be gradually rising with each passing comment. It makes sense, too. My comment is coming after TWO CASES of this highly infections coronavirus has been found in CALIFORNIA, and the death toll is up to 56. Asia's tourism has been massively hampered, but this is looking to be only a temporary thing, though a lot of money is being lost to it as I type. Unfortunately for the government, these seafood markets are prolific and extremely popular, and it would be a bad political move to impose more restrictions on them, and everyone knows how concerned the CCP is with public image. The US is currently planning to bring back as many citizens as it can from Wuhan, but is also dropping them off in San Francisco... watch your sanitation a little more than usual, I'd say.
ReplyDeleteThere will definitely be more fear from foreign consumers due to the current predicament. Undoubtedly, this will lead to less tourism traffic which drives down many Chinese cities' economies. Foreign purchasers will be more wary of manufacturers, but will still ultimately exchange goods but with extra precautions. The Huanan Seafood Market is only one of many food markets where wild animals are sold, so restricting this type of traffic will be quite impossible, as long as there is a market for the goods. This system will continue in the foreseeable future. As long as U.S. security measures are intensified and appropriately monitored, the spread of the corona-virus will be restricted which will lead to minimal casualties.
ReplyDeleteI believe that if this virus gets continues to grow at the rate that it is growing right now, China’s trade relations and especially Asian tourism will be negatively affected. I doubt that many would want to risk the possibility of getting infected by this highly contagious and deadly virus, and would therefore do all that is possible to avoid any factors that could potentially spread the virus which include avoiding all or any contact with China. In response to the last question, I believe that the US should continue doing screenings at the airports and be extra cautious about people coming from China or any other place that has been infected with the virus. Moreso, the US can work with China to try and prevent any people from traveling from places where they could’ve been exposed to the virus until there is a way to vaccinate people or at least contain the virus.
ReplyDeleteAs people have stated above, tourism will definitely decrease due to the virus, and certainly the business in markets like the Huanan Seafood Market. I don’t think they should necessarily close those markets, but maybe have more sanitation regulations to prevent these types of outbreaks. And to prevent it from spreading to the US, there should be mandatory screenings to prevent the continuation of spreading of the virus. The government could even limit travel from China but I’m not sure if that’s necessary.
ReplyDeleteAs the number of people in China that have gotten infected with the coronavirus continues to grow, it has clearly hurt China's economy. Countries are less willing to trade with China as they do not want to run the risk of contracting the virus. There are widespread quarantines of people that have recently visited China in airports in many countries, further tarnishing China's reputation in the public eye. China could potentially use the natural disaster of the virus to show that they can take quick action to protect their people. This would actually increase their national standing in addition to getting rid of a dangerous virus. To ensure the U.S. remains protected, they can make sure that all people coming from China get properly screened for the virus.
ReplyDeleteThe coronavirus has definitely harmed China’s trade relations with the US along with other countries as they are less willing to trade in fear of contracting the virus. As the virus continues to grow, Asian tourism will be negatively affected and we’ll see a large decrease. This is due to the fact that many would want to potentially risk their life by getting infected with this deadly and highly contagious virus. This deadly virus has quickly tarnished China’s reputation all around the world from the widespread quarantines, especially now the CDC quarantine.
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