{"id":3908,"date":"2020-04-20T07:11:42","date_gmt":"2020-04-20T14:11:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/springwaterwealth.com\/?p=3908"},"modified":"2020-04-20T07:12:44","modified_gmt":"2020-04-20T14:12:44","slug":"what-the-future-may-hold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/springwaterwealth.com\/what-the-future-may-hold\/","title":{"rendered":"What the Future May Hold"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Scientists\u00a0are racing to develop a vaccine for the Coronavirus<\/h4>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

The Markets<\/strong>
\nOn Friday, the stock market was up significantly on positive investor sentiment that things may soon return to normal.\u00a0 The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose nearly 705 points, or 3%, and the S&P 500 Index climbed 75 points, or 2.7%.\u00a0 Both indices are now up about 30% from their March lows.<\/p>\n

However, as we write this on Monday morning, the markets are poised to open sharply down, largely due to some negative developments over the weekend.<\/p>\n

Over the Weekend<\/strong>
\nOn Sunday, a number of state governors rejected the Administration\u2019s claim that that the nation\u2019s supply of Coronavirus tests is adequate, and said that a shortage of tests is one of the most significant barriers to lifting restrictions in their states.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, the President defended coordinated protests<\/a> against stay-at-home restrictions in several states, saying that some (Democratic) governors had \u201cgone too far\u201d in their efforts to defeat the virus, even though those effects are based on his own Administration\u2019s guidelines and recommendations.<\/p>\n

On a positive note, several European nations were\u00a0preparing to reopen\u00a0some businesses on Monday. South Korea relaxed its social-distancing rules as politicians and public health authorities there appear to have the outbreak under control.<\/p>\n

And, the White House and Congress are\u00a0nearing agreement on a $450 billion relief package<\/a> the bulk of which is intended to replenish the oversubscribed PPP and EIDL programs and expand testing.<\/p>\n

The Glaring Need for More Testing<\/strong>
\nResearchers at Harvard University have suggested<\/a>\u00a0that the country cannot safely reopen until it conducts more than three times the number of coronavirus tests it is currently administering over the next month.<\/p>\n

Nationally, an average of 146,000 people per day have been tested for the virus so far this month, according to the\u00a0COVID Tracking Project. On Friday, the Project reported 3.6 million total tests across the country.<\/p>\n

According to the Harvard researchers, to reopen the country next month, we need to perform 152 tests per 100,000 residents daily (or roughly 500,000 to 700,000 tests per day). That level of testing is necessary to identify the majority of people who are infected, and isolate them from people who are healthy. But 34 states were conducting fewer than 50 tests per 100,000 people during the week ended April 15.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The FDA has permitted nearly 100 companies \u2013 many located in China \u2013 to produce and market antibody tests intended to indicate whether a person may have developed immunity to the virus, without first vetting the tests.\u00a0 Health officials in the US and overseas have found some of these tests to be deeply flawed, and the FDA has warned that some of the companies are making false claims about the efficacy of their products.<\/p>\n

What the Future May Hold<\/strong>
\nThe New York Times recently interviewed<\/a> more than 20 experts in public health, medicine, epidemiology and history about what our future is may look like.<\/p>\n

Their consensus is that the country is months away from being able to return to what we would consider to be a semblance of our old way of life.<\/p>\n

There is still tremendous uncertainty. Under the best-case scenario, scientists will develop a vaccine or \u2013 more likely \u2013 treatments for the coronavirus\u2019s effects. It\u2019s also possible that the virus will mutate to become less severe. These outcomes are possible, but they\u2019re not the most likely ones.<\/p>\n

Social distancing is still vital.\u00a0About 300 million Americans have probably not been exposed to the virus, and epidemiologists say that until a vaccine or other protective measures emerge, it\u2019s not safe for that many people to suddenly come out of confinement.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear how well the US will cope with the next phase.\u00a0As more people with immunity get back to work, more of the economy will recover. But if too many people became infected at once, new lockdowns would be needed. To avoid that, widespread testing will be imperative.<\/p>\n

PLEASE SEE<\/strong> important disclosure information at www.springwaterwealth.com\/blog-disclosure\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scientists\u00a0are racing to develop a vaccine for the Coronavirus The Markets On Friday, the stock market was up significantly on positive investor sentiment that things may soon return to normal.\u00a0 The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose nearly 705 points, or 3%, and the S&P 500 Index climbed 75 points, or 2.7%.\u00a0 Both indices are now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,6,152,11],"tags":[158,50,66,69,86,87,107,140],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/springwaterwealth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3908"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/springwaterwealth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/springwaterwealth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/springwaterwealth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/springwaterwealth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/springwaterwealth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3908\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/springwaterwealth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/springwaterwealth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/springwaterwealth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}