疫情恐慌蔓延金融危机将再现？ 美政府：小题大作
虽然美国总统特朗普坚持新冠肺炎对美国民众构成的风险依然低，但在过去一周，美股的暴跌已经充分反映了全球投资者的恐慌情绪。
A second person has died of COVID-19 in the Seattle area, Washington state, health officials said on Sunday night.
The patient was a man in his 70s with underlying health issues. He died on Saturday at Evergreen Health hospital in Kirkland.
A Washington state man in his 50s with underlying health conditions was the first American to die from the virus, officials announced on Saturday.
New York State earlier also confirmed its first case of COVID-19, a woman who contracted the virus while traveling in Iran, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Sunday. She's currently under self-isolation at home.
The fast-spreading virus has infected around 85,000 people in 53 countries. China, the world's second-largest economy and epicenter of the outbreak, is home to the vast majority of cases.
About 89 coronavirus cases have been diagnosed in the United States so far.
过去一周交易日内，美股三大指数均暴跌超过10%（标普500指数累计下跌11.5%，纳指下跌10.54%，道指下跌12.36%），创2008年金融危机以来最大周跌幅，市值蒸发约4万亿美元。
这样下去，很多经济学家担忧，在疫情真正对民众生活产生影响之前，也许市场低迷带来物价等等的变化就已经会对民众的日常收支造成影响了。
为了安抚世界投资者对于“疫情将带来金融危机”的恐慌情绪，特朗普政府的官员在3月1日一致表示，是美国民众反应过度了，美国经济的潜在力量是能够吸收这样的跌幅的，股市走向终将被扭转。
美国副总统迈克·彭斯、美联储主席杰罗姆·鲍威尔、美国卫生及公共服务部部长亚历克斯·阿扎都纷纷发声，对外表示过度恐慌的不必要性。
一位政府官员告诉路透社记者，在接下来的几天里，美国政府将会决定是否采取任何措施重振市场经济。
U.S. President Donald Trump passes U.S. Vice President Mike Pence during a news conference on the coronavirus outbreak at the White House in Washington, DC, U.S., February 29, 2020. Joshua Roberts/Reuters
Senior officials in U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on Sunday tried to calm market panic that the coronavirus could cause a global recession, saying the U.S. public had over-reacted and that stocks would rebound due to the American economy's underlying strength.
The S&P 500 index dropped 11.5 percent last week as the virus accelerated beyond China's borders, the worst weekly drop since the 2008 global financial crisis. Roughly four trillion U.S. dollars have been wiped off the value of U.S. stocks.
Economists have begun to worry that the losses could soon start to weigh on consumer spending even before the virus becomes widespread in the United States.
U.S. financial regulators who will gather on Wednesday face their most challenging week in a decade. One official told Reuters that the coming days will determine whether the federal government must take measures to bolster market confidence.
平息恐慌能“釜底抽薪”？
随着病毒在全球的蔓延，各地实施的旅行限制，工人在家待工，无数被取消的商业会议等等已经让各行各业都受到了冲击。
包括航空业、博彩业、旅游业、奢侈品等行业的多只股票价格已经大幅下跌。
如果说之前的中美贸易纷争已经让世界经济开始动摇，那么现在更是雪上加霜。
多种迹象表明，继中国之后，美国市场已经开始受到疫情影响，这又怎能令人不担心呢？
针对美股暴跌的这一现象，阿扎则透露说，美国新冠肺炎疫情防控小组曾经讨论过。他们认为恐慌是罪魁祸首，也是解决问题的根本。
他说，政府将会保持信息透明，及时公开，来安抚民众的不安。
The rapid spread of the virus has led businesses globally to restrict travel, send workers home and cancel conferences, hitting stocks in the aviation, gambling, tourism and luxury goods sectors. That disruption to global supply chains and productivity has darkened the outlook for a world economy already struggling with the fallout of the U.S.-China trade war.
So far, the outbreak's biggest measurable effect has been in China, but a purchasing managers survey last month signaled it was beginning to hit U.S. businesses. Another batch of U.S. economic indicators due out early this week will be closely watched for evidence of a growing impact.
Pence said the U.S. government is doing "everything possible" to prevent the virus from spreading and that he is "confident" the United States is prepared.
Azar said that during a meeting of the White House's coronavirus task force on Saturday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had discussed the negative stock market reaction, saying that much of it was driven by uncertainty. Azar said the administration aimed to quell that uncertainty by being as transparent as possible about latest developments.
"That's why we are trying to give the American people all the information we have when we have it so they don't think there's secret information they're not getting," Azar said.
美股震荡、旧金山宣布进入紧急状态... 美国还能继续“淡定”吗？