Seeking Alpha by Adding Beta

Congratulations Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for Democratic Nomination for President and Vice-President and Best of Luck for winning the elections! Exactly six months earlier S&P reached all time high - that happened in BC (Before COVID). World changed with record unemployment across most of the countries, many folks who have jobs are working from home and close to 800,000 people died due to novel virus COVID-19. But markets don't seem to care...it took 3-4 weeks to lose 34% from Feb 19 to Mar 23 and since then it has not looked back. If you want to see what V-shaped market recovery looks like, just look at S&P chart. It has recovered all the losses and some more and reached all time high last week. And it all can be attributed to select few companies - many of them happened to be in Bay Area. Paradoxically instead of celebrating these with dot.com type excitement, we are all holed up in our houses and packing our bags in case we have to evacuate due to fires burning across

Almost every article you may have read regarding current COVID pandemic, you would see references to  Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918-1919. But I was surprised to read that just 11 years back, we had similarly wide-spread Swine Flu pandemic in 2009. The CDC site gives very detailed information and timeline about this pandemic.   Let's look at some of the comparisons and timelines and learn/predict the course of COVID pandemic H1N1 Pandemic 2009: First case detected in USA on Apr 15. CDC reported to WHO 3 days later 2 weeks later, WHO declared that Pandemic alert The distribution of tests started by CDC in May Jun 11: WHO officially declared it as Pandemic (less than 2 months after first case) Jun 25: Infections reached 1 million July: Reached peak of first wave and Vaccine trials begin Oct: Vaccine approved and second wave started Some school closures but not wide-spread Nov/Dec: 5 vaccines approved and CDC put orders of 100 million doses Aug 11, 2010: WHO officially declared end of H