Roommates, while the leaders of our nation are working to get things up and running as soon as possible, there are many businesses. that may realistically remain unavailable to us for some time. Restaurants and small businesses like nail salons might be able to run as usual, but people may not be able to attend large gatherings, like concerts, for another year or so.
Dr. Ezekel Emanuel, who worked on the Affordable Care Act, recently spoke with the New York Times about the coronavirus, and a possible timeline of things returning to normalcy. He says that it is very possible that businesses will start to reopen, but doesn’t see live concerts and sporting events in the near future.
“Certain kinds of construction, or manufacturing or offices, in which you can maintain six-foot distances are more reasonable to start sooner,” he said. “Larger gatherings conferences, concerts, sporting events when people say they’re going to reschedule this conference or graduation event for October 2020, I have no idea how they think thats a plausible possibility. I think those things will be the last return. Realistically we’re talking fall 2021 at the earliest.”
Dr. Emanuel also speaks to the idea that the United States will go through another type of recession, as businesses are being wiped out due to the pandemic.
“Yes, some of these service industries will eventually come back. But they are wipes out for a lot of people who were in them,” he said. “And so I do think the sort of negative consequences–deaths from drugs, alcohol, suicide–may in fact come back to haunt us.”
And while many schools will be closed for the remainder of the academic year, Dr. Emanuel suggests starting small to integrate kids back into social and academic spaces. He says the best place to start would be summer schools and camps.
As we’ve previously reported, Donald Trump has stated that he is working to reopen the country as soon as possible, but has not given a date in which social distancing guidelines will be lifted.
