Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Thinks Coronavirus Pandemic Will Take This Long to Fade

According to Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, the Covid-19 pandemic is expected to shrink to insignificance in about a year.

Munger’s projection is based on vaccines rolling out. The 96 year old, who has been a longtime business partner of famed investor Warren Buffet, said this week at a California Institute of Technology event online, “It’s amazing, I watched the polio get totally killed by the vaccinations. They’ll spread these vaccines over the world so fast, it’ll make your head spin.”

Munger made these remarks only hours after some of the first vaccine shots were delivered in the U.S.

The first coronavirus vaccine began Monday morning as the first doses of the Pfizer medication was administered to health care workers and nursing home staffers.

Sandra Lindsay, a critical care nurse from Northwell Long Island Jewish Medical Center was the first vaccinated in New York at 9:23 a.m. The event was livestreamed with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

“I believe in science. As a nurse, my practice is guided by science and so I trust that,” said Lindsay during the livestream. “What I don’t trust is that, if I contract COVID, I don’t know how it would impact or those who I come in contact with, so I encourage everyone to take the vaccine.”

Many companies have been hit hard by the pandemic this year, including Berkshire Hathaway. According to Munger, retailers, which are under heightened pressure during the pandemic, were already in a tough situation because of the growth of e-commerce.

“Certainly it’s been a very difficult place to make money because of what the internet has done,” Munger explained.

The Vice Chairman expects equity-market returns to be lower in the next 10 years compared with the previous decade.

“The frenzy is so great and the systems of management, the reward systems, are so foolish,” Munger said.

Munger has also encouraged caution with the levels of quantitative easing and large government deficits seen in recent years and said of QE and fiscal deficits, “We’re in very uncharted waters. Nobody has gotten by with the kind of money printing we’re doing now for a very extended period without some trouble and I think we’re very near the edge of playing with fire.”

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.