Can we stop the virus and save the economy?

By Isaiah O’Connor
a 6 minute read

We are in the midst of an unprecedented time in history. A unique virus from the Corona family of viruses has caused a worldwide pandemic, killing tens of thousands of people. As of April 14th, the U.S. has had 583.000 infected with 23,000 dead, with a projected total of just north of 60,000.

In response to this disaster governments around the world have shut down the majority of their economies, only allowing the most vital of industries to operate. Not only that but many have been given “Shelter at home” and full-on quarantine, keeping the majority of the population at home, and if they need to leave they need to follow the new “Social Distancing” measures that have been implemented to slow the spread of the virus. This has caused an economic crisis of staggering proportions. Between March 15th and April 4th, more than 16 million Americans filed for unemployment, which represents about 10% of the entire US workforce. The stock market is estimated to have lost north of 7 trillion dollars in value, with a total job loss expected to be north of 20 million

Supply chain disruptions have also occurred causing some supplies to not be delivered to where they are needed, causing some store shelves to become and remain empty. Small businesses have been closing by the thousands, with a few sites estimating that we will lose about half of them by the time this is over.

This leaves us with a rather complex problem. We need to save lives, as well as the economy both are needed. The question is how do we prioritize them, and what will it take to best mitigate the damage. Surprisingly enough to me, this seems to be a rather controversial topic, with most of the controversy seemingly rooted in the political realm. I am going to avoid the political sphere for now but rely on my own research. I posted a poll in a few different Facebook groups and the results were rather surprising. The poll was worded slightly different in each group but the gist was as follows:

“What do you think as business leaders should we prioritize during these times of Social Distancing

Stopping the virus at all costs
Stopping the virus first but the economy comes second
The economy first but the virus second
Restarting the economy at all costs
Both are of equal importance

The first group was a mixed group of people, some professionals and some none professional. I got heat in this group for even daring to ask the question. I had a total of 60 respondents. The vast majority of about 76.6 percent wanted to stop the virus at all costs. With 20 percent wanting to try to deal with both at the same time, with no one wanting to restart the economy at all costs.

I only had 21 people respond in the second group. These were all professionals in a single field. They had the evenest response with at least one response to every question. Many still thought that the stopping the virus at all costs was the top priority.

The last group was a group of business leaders and entrepreneurs, a total of 75 respondents. They were not surprisingly more focused on the business end but still wanted to stop the virus. Not a single one wanted to stop the virus at all costs. As you can see from the chart, they all wanted to stop the virus, without forgetting about the economy.

I think they are right. In my personal opinion, both are of equal importance.

The wife of a good friend of mine is a nurse that has been placed in charge of a Corona ward. The stress on his family is immense. She is working long hours seeing a lot of death and is at risk of infection, and not just her, she risks bringing it home to her family. I have huge respect for her. There are a lot of people that are downplaying this and treating hospital staff like her as mere numbers, just another statistic. This is very real and very dangerous.

On the other side, someone close to my family has lost their entire income. This person has gotten so scared and depressed over this, they have had a few, thankfully abortive suicide attempts. Depression, substance abuse, and suicide all rise in times of financial stress. Wanting to bring the economy back online is not greedy or selfish by default. It can be selfless as you do not want people to suffer.

This is an unprecedented time. The financial crash is not due to market forces. It is due to a pandemic and government orders to shut down and stay home. Due to this, it is my opinion that the damage to the economy and people’s lives not directly affected by the illness will be greater unless we can mitigate the damage. Even during the great depression, if you lost everything you, at last, go out and try to find work. Yes, some people are still in business and hiring, but the jobs are few, and we are not supposed to go out looking for work right now, this makes the emotional impact even greater.

So what do we do? It feels like the cliche choice that the villain gives the hero. They can save one person, or another, or many, but they cannot save both, which do you choose? Always a tough choice. However, in these films (If they are not too dark) the hero always finds a way to save both. I think we can be the hero of the story, and find a way to save both. I look at the essential businesses that have stayed open, such as grocery stores, and pharmacies, and even nonessential businesses that have been allowed to stay open, like fast-food restaurants, etc. and look at how they are continuing to operate. They have found a way to remain open while cutting down on the risks.

Here are two examples. The pharmacy where my sister in law works at has limited the number of people to 8 at a time, and have installed temporary plexiglass face shields, avoid touching customers I.D.s, etc. The stores have lines marked 6 feet apart at the register, you are asked to pay using the wifi payment when possible, etc.

I figure that if we start to reopen we can do some of the same things, and think of other ways to keep the virus from spreading as we reopen. The fear is of a second wave hitting hard when we reopen causing even more death and damage. I think if we do it correctly, think outside of the box and find new ways to serve our customers, we can save the economy and defeat this virus at the same time.

So let us all become the hero that can defeat the villain, and save both lives and the economy.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Entrepreneur
Isaiah O’Connor.

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