Apple CEO Tim Cook Talks Long-Term Coronavirus Impact in New Interview

[MacRumors]

Apple CEO Tim Cook visited Birmingham, Alabama yesterday, and while there, he did an interview with Fox Business. Portions of the interview where Cook discussed the coronavirus were shared yesterday, but now the entire 10 minute interview has been released.

Expanding on his comments about the coronavirus, Cook says that things are progressing as expected in terms of "bringing things back," but it will take some time. "By and large, I think this is a temporary condition, not a long-term kind of thing. Apple is fundamentally strong, and that's how I see it," Cook said.

Cook said that he's not sure whether the coronavirus will continue to have an impact on Apple's sales beyond the March quarter. "We're still in February and there's reason for optimism, but we'll see," he said. Focus has shifted from China to South Korea and Italy, and Cook said he believes it's important to see "what happens there and whether something new comes out of that."

On the topic of stock fluctuations due to the coronavirus, Cook had this to say:

I don't really focus on the short term in relation to the market. I think for me, and the way we run the company, we work towards the long-term and I see no long-term difference between what was happening four weeks ago versus what's happening today.

The market takes time to recognize that and so forth. It's going to do what it's going to do, and I'm the last person to be able to predict it. For me, yeah, I look through that. Look through the noise and concentrate on the future. And the future looks very bright.

Cook was asked whether Apple is working to move more of its supply chain outside of China, and Cook said, as he often does, that Apple devices have components from around the world. In China specifically, Cook said Apple focuses on the resilience of the supply chain, not the disaster itself.

The question for us after we get on the other side will be 'Was the resilience there or not, and do we need to make some changes?' My perspective sitting here today is that if there are changes, you're talking about adjusting some knobs, not some kind of wholesale fundamental change.

Cook also talked about how he manages his relationship with Donald Trump and whether his efforts to engage with the Trump campaign have caused employee backlash.

I try to do what I say and say what I do. My perspective is engagement is always best because just standing on the sideline and yelling doesn't accomplish anything but polarization.

I want to suit up and play a role, and if I disagree on something I want to try and influence it. If I agree on something, I want to try to amplify and figure out some way I can be a great citizen of the country. That is my perspective on things and the way we try to lead the company.

Cook touched on a few other topics of discussion, such as Apple's plans to open retail stores in India and Apple's focus on policy. The full interview can be watched over on Fox Business.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Apple CEO Tim Cook Talks Long-Term Coronavirus Impact in New Interview

 

[Vanilla35]

Stonks only go up

 

[PickUrPoison]

Cue the hate...

 

[itsmilo]

Duh. The focus has shifted from China because the media of each country is busy reporting their own cases spreading fear.

the Company I work at just got automated hand sanitizers all over the place yet we still haven’t gotten new toilet lids after almost 2 years 🤣 and every morning we have to sign a paper stating if we feel ill or if we were in contact with people traveling to Italy etc. so much panic ...

 

[citysnaps]

Cue the hate...

Sadly, that’s the only way some people can feel good about themselves

 

[miketcool]

Trillions of dollars disappeared in 3 days over the pandemic scare drummed up by media outlets desperate for viewership to sell ads. Their dependency on clickbait headlines may have jumpstarted the looming recession because the world runs off a phony credit system.

Good on Tim Cook to try and restore some calm. Hopefully people will settle down a bit and look at these problems for what they are.

 

[lunarworks]

Trillions of dollars disappeared in 3 days over the pandemic scare drummed up by media outlets desperate for viewership to sell ads. Their dependency on clickbait headlines may have jumpstarted the looming recession because the world runs off a phony credit system.

Good on Tim Cook to try and restore some calm. Hopefully people will settle down a bit and look at these problems for what they are.

I see the right wing propaganda machine's efforts to blame this on the media are in full effect now. The artificially high stock market tanking is the thing that scares the 1% more than anything in the world.

China shutting down everything as a result of the outbreak, resulting in log jams in the supply chain and manufacturing, is the cause of all this.

 

[unobtainium]

Trillions of dollars disappeared in 3 days over the pandemic scare drummed up by media outlets desperate for viewership to sell ads.

That narrative is a non-starter because we can all see the fatalities and the high infectiousness of it. This may not be the Black Death but it’s shaping up to be the worst pandemic since 1918. No amount of Trump spin is going to change that.

He should just own it and do his job effectively, stop deflecting on the media and whining about his persecution complex. This isn’t the time for that.

 

[BootsWalking]

Cook said all he can really say at this point. Nobody knows where this will lead - there is a huge gulf between the best-case and worst-case scenarios and nobody has a clue where we'll land in between those extremes.

 

[5105973]

Well what was excerpted here sounds reasonable. He chose his words carefully and well, in my opinion.

 

[scaramoosh]

I've already had it, so I'm good.

 

[eatrains]

Trillions of dollars disappeared in 3 days over the pandemic scare drummed up by media outlets desperate for viewership to sell ads. Their dependency on clickbait headlines may have jumpstarted the looming recession because the world runs off a phony credit system.

Good on Tim Cook to try and restore some calm. Hopefully people will settle down a bit and look at these problems for what they are.

Yeah, tens of thousands of infections, thousands of deaths, and large-scale quarantines and lockdowns and shutdowns are totally the fault of the mEdiAa.

 

[QuarterSwede]

He’s 100% correct. Long-term investment in the stock market gives 8% gains yearly on average.

Think what you will about how Cook runs Apple, if there is one thing to learn from him it’s that he’s very good with retail and manufacturing numbers and one of the best Operations Executives to have been one.

 

[nylonsteel]

covid19 is a sinister disease - even the name covid19 sounds sinister
wash your hands, use hand sanitizers, cover your cough, wear a mask if your so inclined and stay at home if your sick

 

[Emanuel Rodriguez]

Yeah, tens of thousands of infections, thousands of deaths, and large-scale quarantines and lockdowns and shutdowns are totally the fault of the mEdiAa.

Most of those horrible-sounding numbers come from China, and China can't be trusted, especially with something like this. We really don't know what the true fatality rate is, but one thing's certain: It's likely far lower than we currently know. There are likely many infections out there that have gone undiagnosed, because for the vast majority of people it shows up as a bad cold. 'tis the season for that sort of thing, so it's probable that most people will simply ignore it. If someone dies we'll no doubt hear about it, but it's very possible that we won't hear about it if they live.

Just something to think about.

 

[routine_analyst]

Cue the hate...

Eddie the hate...

 

[Agit21]

That narrative is a non-starter because we can all see the fatalities and the high infectiousness of it. This may not be the Black Death but it’s shaping up to be the worst pandemic since 1918. No amount of Trump spin is going to change that.

Lol. See you in a few months when this is all over. People recover and the numbers go down.

 

[unobtainium]

Lol. See you in a few months when this is all over. People recover and the numbers go down.

I don’t really follow you. Of course the pandemic will end, duh. Nobody is claiming it won’t run its course. So did the 1918 pandemic, it was over by 1919 lol.

 

[Joniz]

Lol. See you in a few months when this is all over. People recover and the numbers go down.

Your logic is impeccable. Deadly viruses will end on their own some day, so let’s not do anything about it to make people aware. Either it’ll just go away on its own, or everyone will be dead.

I pray you’re not in the medical field.

 

[JPack]

The CDC has tested fewer than 500 people so far. South Korea has tested 70,000.

The State of California only has 200 kits on hand. If you don't test, the disease doesn't exist, right?

 

[Tor Eckman]

Like everything else, people have found a way to politicize this and the media are using it to sell views and clicks. For most people Covid-19 would probably be no worse than a seasonal case of the flu.

How To Tell the Difference Between COVID-19 and the Flu

The risk of severe complications is worse with COVID than the flu. Both illnesses are viral infections that cause symptoms like a cough, fever, and sore throat.

www.health.com

So overall, which is worse: coronavirus or flu?
That's not really an easy question to answer, says Dr. Brown. "It depends on what you mean by worse,” he says. “More easily spread? Then it appears to be coronavirus. Causes more cases of serious illness. Then it’s flu.”

 

[unobtainium]

Like everything else, people have found a way to politicize this. For most people Covid-19 would probably be no worse than a seasonal case of the flu.

How To Tell the Difference Between COVID-19 and the Flu

The risk of severe complications is worse with COVID than the flu. Both illnesses are viral infections that cause symptoms like a cough, fever, and sore throat.

www.health.com

So overall, which is worse: coronavirus or flu?
That's not really an easy question to answer, says Dr. Brown. "It depends on what you mean by worse,” he says. “More easily spread? Then it appears to be coronavirus. Causes more cases of serious illness. Then it’s flu.”

That quote is inaccurate according to even the most conservative estimates of covid-19 fatality rates though. Seasonal flu is 0.1% or less, covid-19 has been estimated between 0.4% and 3%. Definitely worse.


Further, thinking about pandemics in terms of the individual experience misses the point. For most individuals in 1918, it was no worse than a seasonal flu. Pandemics aren’t about individuals, they’re about populations.

 

[Tor Eckman]

That narrative is a non-starter because we can all see the fatalities and the high infectiousness of it. This may not be the Black Death but it’s shaping up to be the worst pandemic since 1918. No amount of Trump spin is going to change that.

He should just own it and do his job effectively, stop deflecting on the media and whining about his persecution complex. This isn’t the time for that.

This is not a time to pour gas on the hysteria, though, and Trump should be trying to calm things down. Some people seem to be hoping for disaster to further their political goals, though.

 

[citysnaps]

Holy smokes! So many epidemiologists here! Who would have thought?

 

[Tor Eckman]

That quote is inaccurate according to even the most conservative estimates of covid-19 fatality rates though. Seasonal flu is 0.1% or less, covid-19 has been estimated between 0.4% and 3%. Definitely worse.

I'm sure you hope it is worse.