Another side effect that I thought of… r/mm prices are going to go up up up. Think about it. We’re going to have a shortage of in-stock swtiches, plates, pcbs, stabilizers… you name it. Better buy up what’s in stock now. Might be a while before you can get more
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Same, I do a lot of work with factories/people in China, and at the end of they day most of them are people just trying to get by, just like you or me or anyone on here, regardless of the govt. China already has a pretty terrible record when it comes to human rights; it sounds like things are getting pretty dire. The New York Times was reporting today that they are going door to door in Wuhan and sending people who are sick to what are essentially internment camps.
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From the geekhack team,
First of all, the Wuhan Coronavirus has caused a massive shutdown of operations for just about everything; in this case, the lives of the workers are far more valuable than keyboards, so we’re praying for their safety as the situation unfolds.
Second, the Guangdong province, which contains Shenzhen and other manufacturing central cities, has issued an order for all businesses to stay closed through the 9th. This means that at absolute earliest, things will start moving on the 10th.
However, the reality is that even after the closure order is lifted, many of the workers are unable to get to work due to quarantine zones and such, and the factories are facing a huge backlog amidst the labor shortage. Many factories are already declaring limited operations or closure for another extended period of time, so at this point it’s difficult to gauge when things will get back to normal.
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I’m a bit amazed that people are still starting GBs with Chinese factories. I think 2 or 3 have started just this week. I don’t foresee any production for quiet some time. Seems silly to take people’s money when you have no assurance the GB will ever happen. Group buy runners are afraid to get passed in the production line I guess.
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Eh, I dunno about that, the factories I work with in Taiwan and Shenzhen are open again. By the time they finish taking orders and collecting payment it will probably be several weeks and I bet everything is mostly back to normal by then
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I hope so. Time will tell. The world certainly has never seen a non-treatable virus this infectious in modern times.
There’s defnitely an additional delay on top of the already heavily-delayed Susuwatari on Drop. Ah, well - this one I can’t be mad about - just hope they stay healthy over there.
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We live in a world where Brexit has come before Susuwatari.
Amazing.
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Though a specific anti viral drug is yet to be developed for covid-19 treatment with generic antivirals seems to be efficient.
Also i would argue that the close relatives to covid-19 (sars, mers) are good examples of succesful encounters with highly infectuous disseases.
Things starting to happen in Germany. Looks like our precious GMK caps may not escape unaffected 
Don’t know about you guys, but I haven’t purchased anything keyboard related in over three weeks now. No in-stock, no group buys. Nothing. Just feels wrong to spend money on hobbies at this time.
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I feel for our niche vendors, that are potentially going to run in to cash flow issues, due to lack of products. Hopefully they will be able to weather the storm and that all prepaid for deliverables, will make it to their final destinations.
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I’m guessing that both MT Serika and Key65 are affected by this and I expect delays. As others have mentioned, safety of people and businesses are far more important than keeb stuff being shipped on time (at least for me),
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Couldn’t agree more, I just hope the businesses, that we’ve come to love and trust, can make it through the dry spell.
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I’m not totally sure I understand why it’s wrong to spend on hobbies now. A lot of people are worried and cooped up inside – seems like a good time to distract yourself by working on a keyboard. And a lot of these smaller players in China are having a hard enough with all of the restrictions they’ve been subjected to without also having all of their demand dry up.
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Not to sound like a heartless jackass (which I hope I don’t), but I believe the marketplace is resilient for smaller manufacturers like keebstuff. The real changes are probably going to happen with large, global supply chain factories and I wouldn’t be surprised to see some capacity for the high volume kinds of items shift to non-Asian countries like Mexico.
I wonder if we’ll also see more meetups potentially be affected. The HHKB meetup was just postponed until everything cools down
My interpretation of @pixelpusher comment, is that, they haven’t been able to find any thing to purchase, as of late, due to items being out of stock and group buys being limited, possibly with a side of doubt, that the group buy items will actually be made / delivered.
I go back and forth from worrying about 1/4 of the world dying and simply ignoring all news by watching harbleu play overwatch on twitch. I figure that’s a safe medium. I work from home anyway, and the entry room has become a decontamination area for when I need to leave. Food still easy to get, but all antibacterial soap and sanitizing wipes/cleaners have been sold out for days now. Luckily I have a few items around the house.
I currently can’t justify spending money on items that aren’t completely necessary for living. Both of my parents are over 60 and have health issues. My father has no extra monthly money at all, so hospitalization will quickly become a financial drain on all of us.
I’m lucky to have plenty of keyboards to play with if I’m bored.
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You might want to bring the panic meter down a couple of notches there. Even the most extreme, alarmist estimates put it at a 70% infection rate by the end of the year with a 3.5% mortality rate. More reasonable/realistic estimates put it at under 40% infection and around 1% mortality. It’s bad but it isn’t anywhere near 1/4 of the population dying bad.
Just try to remember that news channels make more money when people are scared, because scared people watch the news more. They have an incentive to make you fear for your and your loved ones’ lives. And obviously I’m not saying there’s no danger at all, but measured caution will do you more good than irrational fear. It’s a good idea to stop spending frivolously to make sure you have money saved up in the case of extra medical costs, but don’t let it stress you out so much 
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Mortality rate is pretty low. What sucks is how severe it can be on elders. 2 weeks of suffering and badly damaged lung. For most, what will hurt them the most is the economic impact from entire country coming to full-stop for two months. It’s not going to be a walk in the park even for developed countries. And, for countries largely dependent on tourism, it’s going to leave a longer lasting dent.
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