Coronavirus (COVID-19) : The Perfect Python

So far I have not posted on Linked In about Coronavirus for the simple reason that it is not up to me to declare a global emergency; but, being an Event Manager, and seeing the growing number of events being cancelled daily, I have to say that I can spot a bloody Python when I see one.

Let me explain. In the world of Event Management there are only two types of crisis and we think of them both in terms of snakes.

The first is the Cobra.

A nasty and unexpected crisis at your event that strikes with such ferocious and deadly speed that you cannot predict or prevent it. You can only react to it.

Something like a malfunctioning fireworks shell on Bonfire Night hidden among hundreds; or a plane crash landing into something you are running or an idiot flying a drone (or a terrorist driving a car) into any event that you care to name.

You get the idea. Sudden, unexpected, deadly. That's what we are taught on Day One of Risk Assessment 101. That's what keeps us awake at night. That's what Event Managers have to weigh up. The odds of something happening. The measures we have to take to prevent or deal with sudden emergencies. How we set about reacting to a Cobra strike.

The other killer, the one that Coronavirus (COVID-19) increasingly reminds me of, is the Python.

This is where circumstances combine to cause and to feed an escalating problem. A problem that will do everything to overwhelm and to crush you.

Well known Pythons include the crazy decisions and circumstances which enabled the Titanic to set sail without enough lifeboats or the Herald of Free Enterprise to set sail from Zebruggee with her bow doors open.

Think about the building of those fan cages (or death traps) at Hillsborough Football Stadium; or the thinking behind chaining the fire doors shut at Bradford City Football Club. Think about the use of none flame retardant cladding on the side of Tower blocks filled with people; or airports allowing folk travelling from god knows where to collect their bags and jump in a taxi without being checked for Coved-19.

Pythons. Always hungry. Always deadly. All gently squeezing, looking for the weak spots, looking for the place where squeezing will make it impossible for you to breathe. They cannot help it. That is what they are designed to do. A collection of decisions or circumstances or things that could, and often do, combine into something frightful.

Like most of us I first heard of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in January 2020 and I know exactly where I was.I was sitting in a hotel room in Barcelona watching the news while I was waiting to join a cruise around the Mediterranean. I was not too concerned. It was a long way away. It could be contained.I was wrong.

When we joined our ship there were lots of Chinese folk on board, some wearing masks, some not, all of them enjoying the special Chinese New Year celebrations that had been planned for our cruise. Suddenly it was no longer a long way away.

I had no idea where these folk were from, or where they had been, or where they were going to. There was just a lot of them. Global travellers. Just like me and you. What I didn't know was what they were part of.

For most Chinese it just means going home to see friends and family or taking the opportunity to go on holiday with loved ones. So far so good until you think of it in terms of containing Coronavirus (COVID-19). Three billion trips were taken and the number being made by plane was expected to reach 79 million this year. (No surprise in a nation that is tipped to be the world’s largest air passenger market by 2040).

To be honest, I used to equate the wearing of face masks with industrial pollution in China and Asia not disease; and before anyone mentions racial profiling: like many folk I can only be sure if folk are Chinese if someone tells me, which for the record, was the case on board ship. There were a number of areas hosting" Private events for our Chinese Passengers" with signs in Chinese and English on their cabin doors saying "Happy New Year".

One ship. Hundreds of Chinese Tourists. 5 countries. One week. Some of the 79 million estimated to be moving around by plane.

If you just consider the 6000 of us who were on the ship. As we headed to the ship there were thousands of us travelling; and obviously you can added the thousands more who were coming into contact with us as we did so. After a week in which thousands of us came into contact with thousands of folk in the destinations that we visited, we then came into contact with thousands more as we made our way home. Within a short space of time, start crunching the numbers that our 6000 could have infected. Think ripple effect. Now think 79 million and think global game of tag.

In my head I see a Python wrapped around a planet.