I'm not an economist, and this is my own personal analysis, but I think it all depends on the level of fear and how serious the epidemic actually is. With the coronavirus, there's a lot of fear but it doesn't seem to be the deadliest virus known to man--and I don't think the death toll is going to be outrageously high. But it's the perception and people's reaction that affects their spending, productivity, and in the end, the economy.
The Corona virus today has 90000 cases on which I think is higher than what we had with severe acute reapiratory syndrome and middle east respiratory syndrome (SARS and MERS-COV) that number of cases is crazy knowing that it is just been a month or teo since we detected that disease. I'm quite skeptical about the Chinese economy since we aren't seeing a massive down from them, I see their economic losses as an effort to cure the disease as they built an entire full functioning hospital in just 3 days.
I think people are overreacting to the coronavirus outbreak, but that's not to say people shouldn't be concerned. The media tends to make this stuff front-page news in an attempt to scare people into continuously watching TV and checking the news. And yeah, I'm cynical about all of that. If this was a virus that was a deadly as HIV was back in the 80s-90s, or ebola, then I'd say all the worry is justified and it might affect the global economy.
But coronavirus? I don't think so.
Health is wealth, why people would just be walking around when there is a virus. Come on man, this is not a kind of funny jump scare it is all about the expense of all human beings.