At the end of January, AAR was reporting carloads down about 4% for the week, year-over-year. However, AAR now reports for the week ending Feb. 13, carloads were down 7% for the week, year-over-year. It is too early to tell if this slip is weather-related or a potential sign that overall freight shipments are declining. As has been the case, intermodal volume is up for the week, by about 7%. This has been the case for some time, with intermodal traffic up but carloads down. We will be watching this carefully and report on this issue again soon.
The Wall Street Journal published last week a commentary by Marty Makary, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health, chief medical adviser to Sesame Care. Here is what he said:
“My prediction that Covid-19 will be mostly gone by April is based on laboratory data, mathematical data, published literature, and conversations with experts. But it’s also based on direct observation of how hard testing has been to get, especially for the poor. If you live in a wealthy community where worried people are vigilant about getting tested, you might think that most infections are captured by testing. But if you have seen the many barriers to testing for low-income Americans, you might think that very few infections have been captured at testing centers. Keep in mind that most infections are asymptomatic, which still triggers natural immunity.”
Isn’t that good news?
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