May 18, 2020 - The Gold Rush

Back in March when COVID began to unfurl its wrath, Trump laughably mused about things opening up by Easter (April 12). It was a good sentiment though. It showed where his heart is. 

The story has turned from a blip in the news cycle to an obsession.
From February 12 to March 23 the DOW dropped from 29,551 to 18,591 for a 37% drop. 

This is where the gold rush comes in. From talking about flattening the curve to save our hospitals from the coming tsunami, we have moved the narrative to some variation of normalcy comes only when we get the vaccine.

That means the vaccine's value needs to be measured in the trillions of dollars.

What's interesting about this pursuit is that there may never be a vaccine. It may simply be too complicated. We do not have a vaccine for HIV or the common cold or the influenza. 

Even with clinical success and expedited approvals, it could be a long process. There could also be the need for many different vaccines. It is a complicated web to say the least. 

Once there is an effective vaccine, getting it mass produced to the US market and to the rest of the world will be the next herculean effort.

Last week, Trump announced Operation Warp Speed to assist. To say that governments are prepared to through unlimited newly printed dollars at this project is a major understatement.

We may well be in the beginning of the next dot.com bubble. This time it's the COVID Vaccine frenzy.