Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CBS News‘ Norah O’Donnell that life may not get back to normal for up to two months. Two months is a long time. Here’s a bit of the back and forth between O’Donnell and Fauci:
O’DONNELL: We know the symptoms of COVID-19 are dry cough, fever and shortness of breath. If someone has those symptoms, should they go to the emergency room?
FAUCI: No, thank you for the question. They should stay home, call the health care provider, call their physician or even call the emergency room and say, these are the symptoms that I’ve had, I’m staying home. What can I do to get a test, and then you will get instructed about what the proper safe way is to do that.
O’DONNELL: Dr. Fauci, America has changed so rapidly in the last week, people have a basic question: When is life going to get back to normal? How long is this going to last?
FAUCI: You know Norah, we don’t know how long it lasts. If you look at what’s happened in China, they went way up, and they’re starting to come right down now. The Korea curve is peaking — it’s starting to kind of flatten out. So you usually measure in a matter of several weeks to a couple of months.
Are you prepared for two months of societal shutdown? Most Americans are not. But if you’ve been following along with Your Survival Guy, you’ve got water, communications, evacuation plans, and food. That’s well ahead of most Americans.
The best time for a review of your inventory of essentials is always right now. If you aren’t sure of what’s available to you, take a moment today to do a personal inventory. You’ll quickly realize areas where you are lacking, and that knowledge can help you build a plan of attack for putting things right.
The same evaluation method can be applied to your investment portfolio. No doubt with the turmoil in markets of the last few days, any flaws in your investment strategy have been highlighted. Now is the time to button those up. For most people that means a reevaluation of their tolerance for risk. Any time you’re judging risk, you should keep Harry Markowitz’s Efficient Frontier in mind. The power of a counterbalancing bond component in your portfolio should not be underestimated.
Read my entire series, Coronavirus Infects Stock Market here.
