Coronavirus Responses & Impacts Bioeconomy Survey Results – March 2020

Readers are clear in support of social distancing, working from home, more clarity from officials, better enforcement and even believing that draconian measures such as a societal lockdown will have major impact.

The response is more mixed on increasing R&D, sending out checks to families, emergency financial assistance — in some cases, not much support at all and in others, only useful if “now”. In general, we have far more consensus about protecting health than about restoring/protecting the economy.

Readers had much to say about public policy actions, not all of them kind towards the federal response but generally praising state and local officials.

Comments from readers

• Travel restrictions are not useful, lock-down is only useful when there is panic and there is a need to prevent societal breakdown, looting, etc. Liquidity at all levels is a must-have; checks to individuals and small suppliers/individuals get paid first. Emergency financing – maybe – but interest rates would need to be zero until a set date. Predatory loan regulation would be necessary.
• listen to health advisors in this crisis
• Issue with clarity on duration is that nobody actually knows how long this will last – no crystal ball – but without immediate action it will obviously last much longer.
• More testing for COVID-19 needed for containment ,tracking infection and determining infection rates.
• Some of things listed will have a negative impact on organization (in some cases a major negative impact).
• We have secured position for employees to get their paychecks to not destabilize each family and to allow them to concentrate on staying healthy and secure for they are the best major asset of any company at any level!
• Without covid vaccine, do not see biofuel R&D recovering until 2021-2022 when the virus runs it course.
• Stopping the virus only has an effect if accepted by all and strongly communicated from the top. Lockdown has serious consequences that must and can be addressed by governments to avoid major recession/depression
• Cannot give clarity on duration. It’s not something that can be predicted. And $100 checks is not enough for many people, for others not needed at all; impact is limited.
• #1 need is testing