Financial advisors don’t know any more than the rest of us. We went through Ebola, SARS, MERS, and H1N1 and the world did not shut down. This one is clearly different and the first time in modern history that it has caused such a dangerous pandemic that it required such a massive lockdown of the human population.
Apparently the only people who had advanced notice of it were those senators that sold massive amounts of stock right before it hit.
Well, it turns out some CDC officials were starting to ring the warning bells as early as February 25th. These are extracts from this article -
https://www.statnews.com/2020/02/25/cdc-expects-community-spread-of-coronavirus-as-top-official-warns-disruptions-could-be-severe/
about a CDC director speaking to reporters.
(1) "As we’ve seen from recent countries with community spread, when it has hit those countries, it has moved quite rapidly. We want to make sure the American public is prepared,” Nancy Messonnier, director of CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters.
(2) "As more and more countries experience community spread, successful containment at our borders becomes harder and harder,” she said.
(3) The CDC urged American businesses and families to start preparing for the "possibility of a bigger outbreak. Messonnier said that parents should ask their children’s schools about plans for closures. Businesses should consider whether they can offer telecommuting options to their employees, while hospitals might need to look into expanding telehealth services, she said."
and most ominously (4)
“Disruption to everyday life might be severe,” Messonnier said, adding that she talked to her children about the issue Tuesday morning. “While I didn’t think they were at risk right now, we as a family ought to be preparing for significant disruption to our lives.”
CNN, the New York Times, and CNBC all wrote about this CDC announcement on 2/25, so it was out there. Granted, this IS Monday morning quarterbacking by me, but on reflection this CDC official did nail it.