6 weeks. It took our leaders 6 weeks to quit calling it the flu and disregarding the medical advice of the experts of the entire world. 6 weeks during a pandemic when the #1 goal is to buy time and slow the spread. 6 weeks.
Airlines aren't shut down, they were getting crushed long before stay at home orders because people and businesses quit flying long before any stay at home orders.
Oil began collapsing when China shut down.
Cruise ships quit running but only after it started costing them more money than they were making.
Hotels, rental cars and restaurants were already shutting down before stay at home orders were being issued because most were losing money.
Casinos shut down before any stay at home orders because it was costing them more money to stay open than they were making.
Car sales were down 16% quarter to quarter before any lockdown order was announced.
Concerts, conventions and sporting events started cancelling before any lockdowns were announced.
Banks were already under pressure due to all of the above before shutdowns began.
What people aren't understanding is the virus was going to kill the economy either way. You can't wipe out the energy, travel, restaurant, autos, entertianment and the financial sectors without having a MAJOR recession. If the shutdown orders weren't in place and everywhere in the country started to look like NYC do you think the economy was going to hold up to that?
The economy was never an either or proposition. It was either the economy is going to collapse and we were going to have millions die or the economy was going to collapse and we were going to have thousands die. The biggest difference. If we really wanted to protect the economy we would have shut down international travel and cranked up testing from day 1 while stockpiling PPE. Seriously, it was basic math and common sense. We could already be coming out of this if we just used the country's pandemic playbook that was set up very specifically for this. That's it. That's all we had to do.