re: I think it's a bad idea to close restaurants.

quote:

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This is not "help" and may be the dumbest thing I've seen people suggest. That is merely deferred revenue. It may help with short-term cash-flow, but that gift certificate is NOT cash. You buy it now and use it later. They don't get to recognize that revenue twice.

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panicking is ridiculous, but so is ignoring or being flippant about it. During the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, Philadelphia didn't cancel a military appreciation parade following WWI and 200,000 people attended. They had 16,000 deaths over 6 months out of a total population at the time of about 1.7 million. St. Louis did cancel a similar parade. They had 700 deaths over the same time frame out of a population of just under 700,000.

Direct correlation? Probably insufficient data from what I wrote here to be sure, but it does make you think about it