Economic Pain Will Persist Long After Coronavirus Lockdowns End

A survey last week by Seton Hall University found that seven in 10 Americans would not feel comfortable attending a sporting event until a vaccine for the virus was developed. New polling by the Sports and Leisure Research Group, Engagious and ROKK Solutions finds that only about a third of Americans would take a commercial flight, see a movie in a theater or visit a theme park now if they were allowed to do so. In follow-up interviews, respondents stressed two steps that would help them feel comfortable resuming those and other economic activities: reassurances from medical professionals and the development of a vaccine.

The drop in Americans’ plans to spend on travel and leisure activities in the next year drastically exceeds what similar polling found after the 2008 financial crisis and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, said Jon Last, the president of the Sports and Leisure Research Group. “We are seeing people really hesitant to get back to normal,” he said.

“I’m scared to death, frankly, what our sales volume might be when we reopen,” Cameron Mitchell, an Ohio-based restaurateur, said in an interview last week.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce president, Ms. Clark, told members of the business advocacy group in a letter on Monday that “returning to work will be gradual” and phased in, and depend on a variety of developments across the country including additional access to testing of employees and the resolution of a wide range of legal liability issues in areas like employee health privacy.

Mr. Isenberg, who began his career as a dishwasher, says he is eager to get his employees back to work. But he sees economic hardships for his industry continuing through the end of the year, at least.

Mr. Isenberg said there was a hope he holds onto.

“I have a saying,” he said, “when we woke up this morning, we were one day closer to a vaccine.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/13/business/coronavirus-economy.html