Welcome to Prognosis. I'm Laura Carlson. It's day one thirty five since coronavirus was declared a global pandemic. Today's main story. A few places in the US are still relatively unscathed by the virus, but they haven't been able to escape the economic devastation. Nowhere is that clear than in the lobster towns of rural Maine. But first, here's what happened
in virus students today. Houston joined Dallas and other Texas school systems in delaying the start of the school year because of the surge of coronavirus cases in the state. President Donald Trump canceled the planned Republican Convention events in Jacksonville, Florida, another state where cases are raging. The World Health Organization's chief scientist, Dr Sonia Swamy Nathan said the world needs to gear up against the virus for the next year and a half because it will take time to develop
a vaccine. She urged countries to develop public health measures to combat the virus until a vaccine is developed. While twenty four candidates are in clinical trials, the success rate of an experimental vaccine is normally just ten, which is why it's better to have many in development. She also said it's possible that no vaccine will work and the world should consider that scenario. And finally, Austria tightened up mass requirements because of a new surge of rhinovirus cases.
The rhinovirus, a cause for the common cold, is unrelated to the coronavirus, but it spread signals that people are not following social distancing in hygiene rules closely. Rhinovirus cases had been curbed during the country's lockdown. And now for today's main story, the rural town of Stonington, Maine, has barely been touched by the novel coronavirus, with cases numbering in the tents, but its economic health is another matter. The fallout from COVID nineteen is devastating the town's lobster
workers and the lobster business statewide. Lobster is a huge business in Maine, and what's happening in tiny Stonington is in a way a smaller version of the whole US economy, as may dupri has more on the side. This up sitting on the rail and a lobster wants to walk out land on my floor. If I'm a lobster I'm entering through here, and then the baits sitting right here, and then at some point they'll go there. Why am I crawling back there? Just because said, look at something new.
This is what catches them. This is called the kitchen, and this is and this is the and they just like they just want to go explore and move a little bit, so they go back. They keep going in and then it's harder for them to get out of that section than it is this. And will all these traps be in the water eventually? That's me standing outside Blaine and Jinny Olsen's house in Stonington, Maine, as they explain how a lobster trap works. I probably couldn't have
found more appropriate instructors. Blaine and Jinny have been married for twenty five years and work side by side on their boat Virginia. Don Blaine has been lobster fishing the cold Atlantic quaters here since he was fourteen years old. He's now fifty three and has a tidy white mustache and a bigger belly than he did pre quarantine. Jinny is forty six and a fourth generation lobster fisher. Their
two year old son, Devon, used to lobster too. But he's been smart vision he took a job bout McCloy. I hope. I don't know what's gonna happen. Blame that uncertainty on the novel coronavirus. But it's not that the virus itself has hit hard here in this corner of rural downeas Maine. In fact, it's barely touched. The public health Hancock County had reported just twenty one cases and one death as of earlier this week. Instead, it's the
area's economic health that's hurting. The fallout from COVID nineteen threatens a historically bad year for the Olsen's and the rest of the state's lobster industry, And in Maine, lobsters are a big deal, so it has a ripple effect throughout the whole community. When lobster was god a bad year. The biggest problem is lack of demand. Most consumers eat the crustaceans at restaurants and a board cruise ships, and those, of course have been shuttered for months and slow to
reopen when they do. Infection prevention protocols have cut capacity at processing plants where workers pick out meat destined for lobster rolls, and lobster stew, and the drop in air traffic has snarled the logistics of shipping live creatures. The result is that lobster fishers like the Ulsan's are getting paid to pittance for their catch. The doc price was two dollars and fifty cents a pound last week for
soft shell lobsters here. That's about half what it was a year ago and makes it virtually impossible to earn a profit by catching lobster. Hopes for recovery anytime soon are dim in the summertime, on average at cassis to dollars a pound, you get a catch to crate some lobsters just to pay a build h and then after that we stopped making money. Last summer was terrible. We had we averaged fifty five that our price was four dollars and up. That helped last year price, but this
year has been be a different story. You don't have the tourism market, you don't have the exports because of the tariffs and COVID, and you don't have the processes because of COVID, and then i'll mixes together and equals what a low price devastating. The low price lobstering is America's most lucrative marine fishery, and Stonington, Maine, is the capitol of American Lobster comes from Maine, and more so than anywhere else Maine, lobster comes from the waters around Stonington.
Lobsterman in this county hauled almost a third of the one d one million pounds landed statewide last year, worth four hundred and eighty five million dollars. The industry has been trying to mitigate the economic damage of low prices and low demand. One technique is simply don't fish or fish a lot less to prevent abundant supply from causing further price declines. Take a drive around Stonington's in the nearby town of Darisle, and you see a lot of
lobster traps stacked dry in people's yards. In a typical year, those traps would be sitting on the bottom of the ocean floor by now, you know, usually when we go to set. But there's a bunch of traps already in an area where we sat, and right now it's still pretty open. It's just like today. When I went out to the cow, I was expecting to see a ton of trap okay, and that wasn't those big boats. They can't make it. Okay, okay, they got three men plus
a captain. When the lobster industry suffers, the pain ripples throughout the local economy. The Olsen's won't hire carpenters to remodel their kitchen or in us to new lobster traps. This year, they didn't even refresh their booies with day globe paint. They opted to buy regular paint instead because it was cheaper. So it means that you don't go out to eat. It means that you don't buy a bunch of new clothes this year. Like we wanted to
get more new traps this year, that won't happen. So anything that is not a necessity will not happen this year. This year will be a bare bones municipal services here run on lobster revenue. If our lobster industry ceases to exist, then this town really there won't be no school, there won't be no town office, won't be no road troup. What's happening in the lobster industry is a microcosm of what's happening in the global economy. In the age of
COVID nineteen at least the meat still tastes good. Okay, feel you'll eat these all nights to If we have any left overall, we'll have tomorrow and I'll just have a nice That was as Ma Dupre. And that's it for our show today. For coverage of the outbreak from one bureaus around the world, visit bloomberg dot com slash coronavirus and if you like the show, please leave us a review and a rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It's the best way to help more listeners find our
global reporting. The Prognosis Daily edition is produced by Toph foreheads Jordan Gaspoure, Magnus Henrickson, and mat Loura Carlson. Today's main story was reported by Esme Dupre, original music by Leo Sidrin. Our editors are Rick Shine and Francesca Levi. Francesca Levi is Bloomberg's head of podcasts. Thanks for listening. H