Bridging Corona

Mälarhusen, March 31, 2020

As the dust from the stampede (swe: panikrusning i flock, speciellt större klumpiga djur) of bewildered politicians and overconfident billionaires settles, we begin to discern (swe: skönja) the new world shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A few weeks ago the Coronaviridae Study Group of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses concluded that the COVID-19 virus is so similar to the SARS-CoV virus, responsible for the SARS outbreak in 2002‒2003, that they decided to name it SARS-CoV-2 — just adding a version number. The SARS outbreak infected 8 096 and killed 774 patients, a fatality rate close to 10 %.

PHI’s strong financial position together with government initiatives are projected to bridge the financial effects of the coronavirus well into 2021 with the current organization, if not all the way through 2021.

Fortunately, SARS-CoV-2 seems to be significantly less deadly than its predecessor (swe: föregångare), with a fatality rate of “only” a few percent. However, the terrifying prospect of a global pandemic rapidly killing up to several hundred million people and the unprecedented (swe: exempellösa) economic havoc (swe: haveri) this would result in certainly justifies the extreme precautions that have been implemented across the world.

SARS-CoV-2 virus
Left: a digitally colored electron microscope image of SARS-CoV-2 viruses. The virus particles emerge from the surface of cells cultured in a lab. The spikes on the outer edge of the virus particles give coronaviruses their name, crown-like.
Right: the now world-famous illustration of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Bottom: a digitally colored electron microscope image showing a cell surface (blue) heavily infected by SARS-CoV-2 viruses (orange).

To bridge the corona pandemic and to harness (swe: förvalta) the opportunities created by it, we at PHI are closely following the announcements made by the Swedish government. Thankfully, PHI’s strong financial position together with government initiatives are projected to bridge the financial effects of the coronavirus well into 2021 with the current organization, if not all the way through 2021.

We will know more closely, as the dust continues to settle to reveal the full range of government initiatives available to us and all other companies affected by the corona pandemic, or more precisely: the pandemic of the disease COVID-19 caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Peter Egelberg
CEO and founder