severe recession, maybe a depression, but it's highly unlikely to be like that one, maybe unless the virus mutates and starts killing way more people. There hasn't been a depression in a very long time (though 2008-9 came close), but before the Great Depression there used to be depressions fairly frequently, and they were usually fairly short. Severe, but short. My guess is that this will be more like those depressions that were common before the creation of the Fed — if it even rises to the level of being a depression.