[dougmwne]

Well typical financial advice is to keep at least 3 months of expenses in a savings account or other very liquid account as an emergency fund. So plenty of people likely follow that advice.

The US govt just said that strict social distancing measures could last till August, plus there could be a recession coming. It's entirely possible that many people could be laid off and may run low on emergency funds if this goes on long enough. And many Americans could be facing huge medical bills to pay for treatment.

I'd say it's extremely likely that some unfortunate people are going to need to do hardship withdrawals from their 401ks to avoid eviction. Not everyone is in such a secure position that they could be cut off from their assets all in the name of calming the financial news.