This Little Piggy Got Flu and Scared the Market

I read today in the news that the market dropped today because of fears of Swine Flu entering the US and causing Armageddon.  I have two thoughts on this.  First off, the DOW dropped a whopping 0.64%, which is hardly newsworthy, but I guess it sounds cool so it will create a catchy headline in the Financials pages.  Second, are times when everybody panics because of a disease scare a good time to buy stocks?  They are obviously deflated because people are just freaking out.

In my mind one of two things would happen in a situation such as this. The first scenario would be that this, like other disease scares in the past, will pass and the market will go back up to where it would have been without the scare in the first place.  In this case it would be a good time to get stocks.  The second scenario would be that there really is an epidemic, and everybody dies.  In this case you'd be dead, so if you had bought stocks you won't mind that they are worthless, or if you're one of the few survivors you'll be just happy to be alive.  

Some nice macabre thoughts for a Monday :)