‘There will be more pandemics’: ETFs capitalizing on Covid look ahead

Last summer, four ETF makers took different tacks toward packaging funds that could benefit from Covid-19’s social disruption.

In the summer of 2020, Covid-19 cases were rising across the US as the pandemic upended daily life. Amid the chaos, a handful of ETF providers found ways to capitalize on the changed economy.

Four ETFs in particular launched either last June or last July. Over the intervening months, their fortunes differed as investors made their bets, looking to find silver linings in the fallout from Covid-19. Now, more than a year later, the ETF makers are positioning their funds not as responses to a transitory pandemic, but as ways to take advantage of fundamental social shifts.