Even though Dr. Bill Wattenburg was a nasty talk show host, his background was in science and he talked quite a bit about what to do in the event of a pandemic (which he expected to happen). His advice might not apply to this current pandemic, which appears to move in fits and bursts--as opposed to sweeping through a community rapidly.
He said stay home for two weeks, don't open the door, don't gather with others and don't get the mail.
I'm thinking that operations like utilities, credit card companies are going to be just as vulnerable to this as individuals. They may have to halt operations too. They may have to suspend billing procedures or "work with" customers.
Their people may not be able to go to work either. We may even lose certain services for periods of time. So they may not send out bills during the worst periods, or move to a different/delayed billing cycle. In fact, they may not be able to provide services.
It's in the self-interest of companies to work with customers, because if they push it too far people will declare bankruptcy and monies owed to them will be rendered unrecoverable. (We are talking about a worst case scenario here, perhaps unlikely to happen). If the system of payments breaks down, it would destroy companies. The government could conceivably step in and order them to provide services if they threatened not to. The government could "pay" the utility provider to provide services for a certain period of time, in effect making a loan to the company and paying the bills of the population until things settle down. This wouldn't be easy on ordinary people, though, who would eventually have to scramble to pay these bills. A lot of people who have striven to stay debt-free might suddenly find themselves in debt due to circumstances beyond their control, but most of the country would be in the same position.
In China (and now Italy), this pandemic is hitting both supply and demand.
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