ReportageThe city and its surroundings have become a major focus of the epidemic in the United States. Hospitals and museums, poor and rich, the whole city is organizing itself as best it can, in fear of a health disaster.
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Chance Landesman has taken to the wooded mountains of Maine, 650 kilometers north of New York City. The Brooklyn student, 21, took refuge with five friends in a plush house to escape the coronavirus. There, he embarked on the construction of a greenhouse, and he fed the chickens, while keeping an eye on his smartphone and on his stock wallet. Wall Street plunges, America has 3.3 million more unemployed in a week, New York is a closed city, surrounded by the coronavirus, but the kid made a small fortune on the stock market by betting on the collapse of the financial markets .
That was five weeks ago, a fraction of the time, but an eternity. This Monday, February 24, we are still in the old world. The stock market has reached all-time highs. No case of coronavirus has yet been detected in New York. We will have to wait for Sunday 1is March for the announcement of the first patient, a medic who returned from Iran. Chance Landesman, who learned to stock market l’application Robinhood, sees the arrival of the economic and health catastrophe, which has already struck Asia, then Europe. “I thought we were going to have a recession. The coronavirus epidemic was going to be the trigger, and I sold short. “ He bet all his savings, as well as a donation made by one of his uncles for his 18th birthday. Four weeks later, he had multiplied his stake by 25 (which had dropped to 16 in the meantime) and flew to Maine. “I love New York, but there was nothing that makes it cool”, he confides to World by telephone.
Curious impression. Chance Landesman is timeless, but in the world. He suspended his studies of philosophy and religion, and became passionate about finance. “I’ve been waiting for a major change for a long time, he continues. Many young people have a more apocalyptic view, with climate change, the economic outlook. We got worried very quickly, while the old people were late. “
Unreal atmosphere
The “Old”, as he says, are confined to New York. His mother, for example: Shanny Peer, director of the French House at Columbia University, stayed in her house in Brooklyn. “I do yoga. My club gives lessons on the Internet ”, she tells us. Everything went so quickly… Suddenly, the university decided to close, like other New York institutions. “I work more or less from home, even though I can’t organize events. I am paid. Everyone is paid for now, we are not talking about layoffs. “ Everything is canceled, including the graduation ceremony, which is usually attended by tens of thousands of students. And we hope for a recovery in September, without being really sure. The priority? Avoid disease. “I think I have the virus, poursuit Shanny Peer. Ten days ago, I had a little fever and body aches. And then I lost my taste and smell. But, because the federal government is incompetent, testing is very rare, and you can’t do it. Anyway, I pretend I have the disease. “
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