I have the opposite assumption: the raw data is usually more reliable than an editorial. And I confirmed it: the raw table is more reliable since it is the same survey across different years. The article is inconsistently comparing numbers from 2 different surveys. The 2018 figure (2.63) is from the "American Community Survey" and the 2010 figure (2.58) is from "Census SF1 data".
Your example is hogswash. Absolutely, the perceived long term value dropped 30% as people feared a million deaths (with lockdown) and dead bodies piling up outside hospitals across the country (with lockdown, and not just New York City). The stock market is rising now that people realize the pandemic, while still bad, isn't going to be as bad as those predictions. Our perception/understanding of the pandemic has rapidly changed.
Some models were predicting multiple hundreds of thousands of deaths, with lockdown. The Imperial College model was predicting 1 million deaths, with lockdown. I completely agree cases will rise as places begin reopening. But whatever the outcome it will be with reopening - still better than what the market expected in March.
Yes, NYC was the only place in America where the system was close to overrun and some hospitals actually were overrun, I'm not disputing that.
The explanation is very simple. The pandemic is not nearly as bad as people thought it would be in March.
Models were predicting hundreds of thousands of deaths in the USA over the next few months, with lockdown. Many people were predicting hospitals would be widely overrun in New York City, parts of California, etc (again, with lockdown). These models and predictions, of course, were wrong.
Printing money and stimulus should have been expected (given the government's response in 2008) and therefore priced in, at least in theory. If we actually had massive numbers of bodies piling up outside hospitals in all major US cities, no amount of money printing would have propped up the markets.
The WHO is no longer a trustworthy source. But this is still (mostly) correct, and it's not that hard to dive into the studies directly instead of appealing to authorities. All indications are that it is possible for SARS-Cov-2 to be airborne but it is rare.
With the disclaimer that I'm only using Google Translate, it appears this document is from one hospital and is not a requirement, merely a guideline / informational document.
But the 2010 "American Community Survey" says the average houshold size is 2.63 (https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?q=b25010&tid=ACSDT1Y201...), so for this survey the trend is flat.