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Good morning. David Meyer here in Berlin, filling in for Alan.
Are we anywhere near the right time for even a partial rollback of our coronavirus lockdowns? We’re about to find out.
China’s Wuhan megalopolis—the outbreak’s first epicenter—is finally relaxing its rules after a lockdown that lasted more than two months. As of today, outbound travel is allowed again, at least for those who can show a green QR code on their phone screen that denotes good health.
Later this month, certain European countries will also cautiously start lifting restrictions. Czechia (one of the first European countries to impose measures) will from tomorrow allow some shops to resume their activities. Next week, Austria will start re-opening some shops and Denmark will reopen daycare centers and schools—Norway will follow Denmark’s lead the week after.
Are they right to do so? Those European countries’ leaders are certainly trying to strike a note of cautious optimism, as typified by Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg’s statement that “together we have taken control of the virus, therefore we can open up society little by little.” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen described the effort as “a bit like walking the tightrope…if we stand still along the way we could fall and if we go too fast it can go wrong.”
“Go wrong” in this case could mean massive flare-ups of COVID-19. As a World Health Organization spokesman put it: “One of the most important parts is not to let go of the measures too early in order not to have a fall back again. It’s similar to being sick yourself; if you get out of bed too early and get running too early you risk falling back and having complications.”
But the scale of the lockdowns’ economic damage, plus the indications from Italy that long lockdowns can lead to social unrest, certainly make cautious relaxation attempts worthwhile, where the data indicates a window of opportunity (and in the case of Wuhan, potentially unreliable data makes the move somewhat questionable). The rest of us can only watch and wait—the results will of course take some weeks to manifest in case statistics.
Separately, kudos to Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey, who has pledged to donate as much as $1 billion to tackling the coronavirus crisis and its fallout—once the crisis is over, remaining funds will go to girls’ health and education, and the push for universal basic income. The donation comprises Square shares that, per Dorsey, represent around 28% of his wealth.
More news below.
David Meyer
@superglaze
david.meyer@fortune.com
TOP NEWS
Eurozone indecision
Stocks are falling after finance ministers from the 19 eurozone countries failed to agree on stimulus measures, despite a 16-hour teleconferencing session. Broadly, the division is between rich northern-European states and their neighbors down south; Italy and Spain don't want fiscal targets attached to funds from a mooted new credit line, but the Netherlands in particular is keen on conditionality. The Stoxx 600 is down 1.2% at the time of writing, while U.S. futures look flat. Bloomberg
WHO funding
President Trump yesterday said the U.S. was "going to put a hold on money spent to" the World Health Organization, because it is "very China centric". Then he rolled back the comment minutes later, saying: "I mean, I'm not saying I‘m going to do it, but we are going to look at it." Trump's disquiet stems from the WHO's advice in recent months to avoid closing borders to people from other countries. Politico
Foxconn ventilators
iPhone assembler Foxconn is to start producing ventilators about a month from now at its Wisconsin plant, in partnership with Medtronic. Foxconn, more properly known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., has already been making masks in China, while its Sharp subsidiary has been doing the same in Japan. Fortune
Tesla workers
As a result of having to suspend production, Tesla is to cut all of its salaried workers' pay, and furlough its hourly workers. The reductions will be in place until the end of the quarter, but Tesla hopes to resume Californian production on May 4. Tesla already stopped using contract workers last week. Bloomberg
AROUND THE WATER COOLER
5G and coronavirus
Is there a link between coronavirus and 5G? Of course not, but many are claiming there is one, so Fortune's Aaron Pressman took a look at what the experts are saying. This really is the article to send those concerned friends and relatives when they spread misinformation on social media. Stephen Powis of the U.K.'s National Health Service: "Complete and utter rubbish." Leading biologist Eric van Rongen: "There are no indications from scientific studies that 5G, or any other G, affects the immune system. If that would be the case, we would have seen effects on the scale and severity of infectious diseases already decades ago. And we don’t." Fortune
Recession time
Is the global recession already upon us? This Bloomberg piece says the evidence suggests it is, with a hit to demand already being apparent in global shipment levels, new car registrations. "The already-receding global economy is losing steam faster than in the early days of the financial crisis," the piece warns. Bloomberg
Airlines latest
Germany's Lufthansa is permanently shrinking its fleet, saying "it will take months until the global travel restrictions are completely lifted and years until the worldwide demand for air travel returns to pre-crisis levels." Meanwhile, easyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou has threatened to sue the budget airline's executives if they follow through with a large new order for planes; he says the carrier will be bust by the fall if they don't cancel the Airbus deal. Deutsche Welle
Crypto future
Michael Casey, the chief content officer at Coindesk, writes for Fortune that post-lockdown trade tensions will "spur demand for changes to the international financial architecture and will test confidence in the dollar’s role as the global reserve currency." In particular, he reckons China is far ahead of the U.S. with its centrally-managed digital currency project, and "a China victory in the digital currency race would have multiple negative effects for the U.S.—and Western capitalism generally." Fortune
This edition of CEO Daily was edited by David Meyer.