During any pandemics, more than illness and death occur. Those infected are ostracized, quarantined, and the social isolation, where short, has devastating effect on school attendance, workplace attendance, and the ability to move produce and goods from one segment of society to another. Food shortages develop, as well as shortages in supplies. These are opportunities for businesses to step into overproduction or be inventive or resourceful. Many new corporate entities or networks find their birth during such troubled times.

Stock markets have routinely dipped during recent pandemic scares but rebounded quickly when the pandemic eased. Depleted inventory must be refilled, and the new corporate entities that have emerged create a boom. If schools had to be closed, online or home school venues may flourish. If shopping for food is risky, due to the threat of contagious, then home delivery networks may flourish. Certainly the airline and travel industries are suffering. There are winners and losers.

Religious rituals and political rallies may need to be closed, but in the day and age of TV and the Internet, physical participation is not necessary. Will the 2020 vote in the US be canceled if Covid-19 cannot be contained? Delayed at most, but not canceled, but we predict that the Covid-19 will be dramatically eased by mid-Summer 2020, due to aggressive quarantined practices and the emergence of effective anti-virals and several new vaccines.

But Covid-19 will bid farewell to many well-known celebrities and politicians, as their normal activities require interaction with others. Something as simple as a church service, or a session of Congress, or a meeting with a Cabinet can prove deadly when a highly infectious virus is involved. Will assassinations be attempted, under the cover of a viral infection? Absolutely. The Pope fears for his life, as we recently detailed, and is now ill with a cough. A pandemic offers opportunities, on many fronts.