Companies That Are Actually Benefiting From The Coronavirus

Millions of workers across the globe face unemployment and financial hardship amid the exponential spread of SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus behind the COVID-19 disease. Per the Independent, as much as a third of the UK's roughly 3.2 million hospitality jobs could wind up on the chopping block. CNBC writes that an estimated 5 million people in China lost their jobs during the first two months of the outbreak alone. Meanwhile, Market Watch reports that as of March 15, 643 U.S workers have suffered coronavirus-related layoffs, which CNBC says could rise to as high as 3.5 million layoffs in the increasingly likely event of a recession.

Meanwhile, the stock market has seesawed between lucrative hope and catastrophic despair. On March 16, the DOW, which saw record highs three weeks earlier, took a Mike Tyson-like punch to the gut that sent it tumbling nearly 3,000 points in the largest drop of points in recorded history, according to Forbes. Small businesses have suffered, restaurants are preparing to serve pink slips to employees, and the travel industry has ground to a screeching halt. But as people embrace social distancing and prepare to weather the pandemic storm, some companies have had a much sunnier financial outlook throughout.

The health care industry has seemingly been "immunized from the economic fallout" of the new coronavirus pandemic, according to NorthJersey.com. As cynical as it might sound (and kind of is), Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Pennsylvania stands to profit handsomely from its work on a vaccine for the COVID-19 virus. Upon announcing an accelerated timeline for production, the drug company saw its stocks skyrocket by 275 percent. Similarly, Moderna Inc. reaped a 60 percent leap in stocks due to its reported progress on a vaccine.

The public effort to keep disease at bay has led to social distancing and a fervent effort to keep homes, hands, and heinies clean. Shoppers have been spree-buying toilet paper like it's Black Friday, and the Motley Fool lists Angel Soft, Charmin, Scott, Quilted Northern, and Kleenex Cottonelle as the best-selling brands in the U.S. Per ABC, in early March, Clorox stocks hit a record high, while Vox notes that Lysol, Purell, and Campbell (the soupmaker), are also making a mint. And with more people holed up in their homes instead of heading outside to stare at their phones, it gives them another excuse to binge-watch Netflix (as if they needed one), probably also while staring at their phones.