QE and monetary stimulus is primarily effective at counteracting demand shocks. For example productive capacity, like empty storefront or unemployed workers, si

QE and monetary stimulus is primarily effective at counteracting demand shocks. For example productive capacity, like empty storefront or unemployed workers, sits unused because liquidity has dried up. A worldwide pandemic would primarily exert its economic effect through supply shocks. The productive capacity of the economy genuinely shrinks. Stores can't open during a quarantine. Sick workers can't show up at the office. A pandemic might have second-order demand shocks, particularly if panicking investors flee to quality. But there'd still be a genuine contraction in real and potential GDP, most of which would get absorbed by contracting corporate profits. Monetary stimulus can't route around those constraints.