Coronavirus Pandemic: Stock Market Tumbles Amid Dr. Anthony Fauci’s Outlook on Vaccine Before End of Year

The stock market took a tumble this week, with the financial fallout from the coronavirus pandemic likely being the cause. This also comes amid Dr. Anthony Fauci‘s new outlook on the chances of a vaccine being available before the end of the year. According to CNBC, The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped over 800 points on Thursday. This is the biggest one-day decline since June 11 and comes after the stock market had been on the rise.

Comment on the steep decline, Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge said, “Someone hit the ‘sell tech, buy dreck’ button and this is creating a bid beneath beleaguered groups, while [tech] gets pummeled. For tech specifically, the stocks are seeing large percent declines, but this comes after a massive recent rally. Tech has been untethered from fundamentals for a while and momentum can work in both directions.”

Liz Ann Sonders, the chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab, added: “I’m not sure that just today’s weakness is sufficient enough to ease some of those excesses and tell the short-term folks this is the kind of dip you want to buy. I don’t have a clear crystal ball more than anybody else, but certainly, the excess suggests something more than a single-day compression in the high-flyers may be necessary to kind of right the ship.”

The stock fall came as Fauci told CNN that a COVID-19 vaccine may not be ready by October, as many hoped. “It is conceivable that you could have it by October, though I don’t think that that’s likely,” Fauci told CNN’s Jim Sciutto. Commenting on the timelines that have been discussed, Fauci said, “These are all guesstimates.”

Sciutto also asked Fauci if he would have any hesitancy getting the vaccine himself — or allowing his family to get it — if it was approved before late-stage trials are finished, and he replied, “Not at all, Jim. I will look at the data and I would assume and I’m pretty sure that that’s going to be the case, that a vaccine would not be approved for the American public unless it was both indeed safe and effective, and I keep emphasizing, both safe and effective. If that’s the case, Jim, I would not hesitate for a moment to take the vaccine even myself and recommend it for my family.”