Virus Refugee Update

I left China for Christmas with one suitcase, and have been hopping from friend's to friend's homes since then. I'm currently in Hawaii, then LA, Boston, Phoenix, Sedona, then not sure. Thank you to EVERYONE who has invited me into their homes. I'm am infinitely full of gratitude.

Even though I'm a road warrior, I'm definitely getting travel fatigued. I'm mainly staying in US as I'm a citizen, and international travel doesn't seem very smart at the moment.

I'm doing workshops and speeches in the cities that I land in. I'll post events on FB @shanghaipeggy. I'm doing 3 workshops for my hosts:

1. How to manifest societal-scale change (lessons from my work in China, Qigong, and Quantum Manifestation);
2. How to maximize your impact with more press (based on my new book Mesmerize the Media);
3. and Lessons from how China is tackling the world's toughest challenges (what other societies can learn without becoming China).

I'm still figuring out if I should go to Bangkok for April 23. China seems to have peaked in #coronavirus cases outside of Wuhan.

But other countries are starting to freak out and tourism is declining where Asian tourists are the main demographic. Places like Thailand, that thrive from Chinese tourism, are massively hurting. Especially since this took place during one of only three major holidays where Chinese people travel abroad. Hawaii which depends on Japanese tourists has seen a sharp decline in the last couples weeks. I decided not to go to an event in New Zealand and two days later they cancelled the entire event.

Because I would have to quarantine myself for 14 days possibly in China and then again outside China if I travel through there, I think I won't be able to go back to China till June. It seems likely to take another several months or more from now to see rapid tests available widely and at least 18 months for vaccines. So being away from home for half a year seems like my best case scenario.

It's a bit weird to fully embody my talking point about "change is the only constant" now.

***

I would like to give some positive comments on the Corona Virus. In China, I believe the peak has been reached, although we shall see what happens when people start moving about outside their apartments again en masse.

My city, Shanghai, has had no new cases. The mayor of Shanghai moved to govern central Hubei province, where Wuhan city is located. In China, that's like bringing in the calvary.

I’ve been told that much of the medical staff and equipment was shipped from Shanghai to Wuhan. I heard a number of 400 medical staff from around the country so far volunteered to go to Wuhan to help!

Also, every aspect of life has changed in China. Logistical and technical innovations have accelerated in crazy positive ways. The future of work, education and delivery has been forced upon us even more quickly than it was already happening.

This will spur much economic progress in the medium term with:

• online education - it will become the norm that schools provide online teaching, content will be upgraded, a 7000+ server network will grow to accommodate traffic
• medtech, which is already at the cutting edge in China, will continue to innovate
• faster gene sequencing and vaccine development
• remote med diagnostics will be normalized as the first step when you feel sick
• delivery by self-driving car or drone, vending machines in front of compounds for grocery delivery, drones that fly around lecturing people wandering outside and without masks to go home,
• self-driving street cleaning trucks
• self-navigating robots that take people's temperatures in a crowd from a distance
• ability to scale up manufacturing and availability of priority equipment such as masks and Tyvek outfits
• big data management of contact tracing of patients
• management of information flow to and from citizens during disasters
• cloud-based parties/events/exercise classes/TV shows, l
• even more live-stream commerce
• better handling of food reserves
• demand for healthier foods for immune systems
• contingency plans for work, faster construction capability
• remote work as standard vs exception
• better rapid response preparedness working across ministries
• expert collaboration across countries
• more power to the China CDC to communicate nationwide
• and so much more.

It's actually really exciting to see this technological innovation happening so fast.

Much of this is also great for the environment. Less car traffic, less smog, leas oil and gas use, less factories using coal-fired energy, less food packaging, less food waste, etc.

Also, wildlife trade has been formally banned across China. "The hunting, trading, and transportation for the purpose of consumption of terrestrial wild animals that naturally grow and breed in the wild is completely prohibited" as of Monday. Consumption will be punished. (Having said that, now researchers are saying the wet market was not actually the source of the virus.) In my work, I have found China very good at quickly establishing policies in response to these issues that arise. This is one example.

Most importantly, a communal sense of solidarity has blanketed the nation, watching out for everyone's good, cheering citizens/doctors/researchers/workers/etc on to combat the virus together. This has really been great for China's sense of community and citizenry. China is not only doing its best, but they've stretched 150% everyday beyond their capacity to get the virus under control, together.

Like other citizens in 38 provinces, my roommates, my parents, my friends are volunteering to stay indoors almost 99% of the time (grocery shopping might be the only exception). People are generally not allowed to come visit you if they aren't residents of the development. Deliveries are dropped off at the border of residential compounds instead of to your door. I can only imagine how dysfunctional families are getting along in cramped quarters and nowhere to go. I feel bad for parents of overactive toddlers who can't send them to daycare for a break.

When people do visit the few places that are open for food or shopping, they are going to great lengths to avoid human contact. Book stores are sliding books under the door to customers who preorder and pickup. Steamed bun street vendors use a long wooden plank to slide the bag of buns down to the customer. Starbucks now doesn't allow me to fill my thermos with coffee- I have to take their paper cup.

My mother and brother, who own restaurants are losing hundreds of thousands of dollars each month. I am sure there is going to be a sinkhole of small business owners collapsing from this.

All in all, compared to that, I'd rather be a virus refugee floating around visiting friends and learning to work remotely. I'd rather be stuck not being able to go home, than be stuck inside my apartment for months at a time.

#China #jiayou #Wuhan #staystrong #virus #refugee #roadwarrior