Know your swans: grey is not such a rare bird

There are reports calling the coronavirus a “grey swan” event. I’m not quite sure what the experts mean by that – it’s not a black swan event but not a white swan event, by the sounds of it. Or maybe it’s just an expression to say “panic but don’t panic”.

The expression “black swan event” derives from the old saying “a rare bird in the lands and very much like a black swan”, which was common in 16th century Europe.

It was a phrase that described the impossible. All swans were considered