Bird Flu has apparently flown the proverbial coop - at least as far as the market is concerned. I was looking through some of the factors that affected the market adversely this year and began to wonder where the pandemic went. In April and May, it seemed like it was a matter of days before we were going to see people dropping like flies (make that birds.) I am not trying to make light of such a disaster and hopefully we are slightly more prepared now for all the hysteria that was being tossed around. However, I just hate things that go from Page 1 to nothingness without any explanation.

Last fall and this spring, we had constant tv, radio, internet and print coverage, we had Congress politicizing, we had the administration developing action plans, we had over $7 billion in appropriations, we had blue ribbon infectious disease conferences, and we even had a made-for-tv ” special” on ABC called “Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America.”  Fortunately, the paranoia-induced media hype was a lot more contagious than the actual disease has been, but along the way, the markets got played. Investors were trying to figure out how to position their portfolios for the impending doom to avoid stocks that would get whacked and to find a few stocks that would benefit. Major brokerage firms (anonymous because I find it embarrassing) were offering up advice like this…”We believe the imminent arrival of bird flu in the United States will bring this potentially devastating disease back into the limelight… We believe investors should consider a basket of stocks to inoculate their porfolio from this source of risk.” Overall, the whole mess was probably a contributor to the market selling off in May. But then geopolitical and oil worries took over and the bird flu thankfully vanished from the market. Since then, I am not sure that the world or the market is much safer. I wish that this experience would have taught a few lessons about not overreacting and putting your money at risk, but I doubt it.