Bloomberg’s Readspike alerts, triggered by news coverage of Coronavirus, spiked to levels not seen since the collapse of Bear Stearns.

Readspike is a proprietary measure calculated by Bloomberg of surges in readership for individual stories .

As of this morning, there were almost 70 Readspikes, the highest since Bear Stearns collapsed on March 14, 2008.

There have only been two bigger days for Readspikes.

One was when Lehman collapsed on Sept. 16, 2008.

The second was Jan. 16, 2009 amid an unusual confluence of breaking news, including Steve Job’s plan to get a liver transplant, the “Miracle on the Hudson” plane landing, a decline Barclays shares, and losses at Citigroup.