There's more going on here than the virus, although that could be bad. I read a story in the Atlantic which interviewed a couple of prominent epidemiologists who believe that we will have a fullscale pandemic, and that it's too late to stop it. Their thinking is quite interesting. In cases like SARS or MERS, you get very rapid onset and the disease is instantly seen as very serious and so gets immediate attention, and then, of course, many of the potential spreaders...die. The problem with the new virus is that some people get it but are asymptomatic or only mildly ill, so they continue working and traveling and spreading the disease. Still, it may kill up to 2% of the people who get it. If spread widely, like the flu in the US (as the flu would be without vaccines) we could have a couple of million people die.
But, there's more going on in the market. For one thing, it was too high, being held up by traders and hot air. It was way overdue for a drop of some dimension, a correction, if not an actual bear market. These things happen every few years, in normal times, which we've not been having. And the other thing, of course, is Bernie. If it looks like the Dems may nominate Bernie, the market will take an even bigger hit. I doubt the Dems are crazy enough to do that, but that may not be what the overall market thinks. (I stay this as a moderately liberal Democrat.)
