By Daisy Sanchez
Since the COVID-19 Coronavirus has reached the United States, it has totally affected all aspects of life here. Schools, supermarkets, laundromats and all other parts of the economy are hurting, and many businesses are being lost and many will not come back. Looking around town locally, this is the case. Passaic’s economy is something that is talked about often. Small restaurants are failing, as well as local corner stores. Although stores like Walmart had customers, to the point that they had to restrict the amount of people going into stores.
Once the virus was shown to be infecting the population here, many ran to the biggest store they could, to get as much as they could. Many in the United States prepared for the worst. This happened mid-March and after that, many feared to be with other people. Even more because the news would broadcast that the worst two weeks were to come. It did indeed become true for many people. For the economy that meant no customers, no income, no way to have their own money to pay for bills and essentials.
The President has been urging states, realizing the nation was hurting, to open stores and the rest of the economy up. The CDC has provided guidelines, based on the latest research, and we already have a good idea what that is. Keep washing hands, and keep distancing, keep wearing masks, and limit the amount of people in crowds. Although many do say that even if the restaurants open and many other stores open up some will still go out of business. This is because although there are groups of people dying to go back to their normal life some still fear and have no plans of going out nonetheless eating out, letting others make their food.
In my point of view as one person living in Passaic, I understand the need for money to pay bills and the desire to go out. Although the fear is still there and a lot of these restaurants may still fail because no one is going to be going every week to all these places. It will take some time for things to get even near some sense of normal.
In the business industry some places get more customers and the ones that don’t will fail. I personally think that opening everything before the end of the year is a mistake. The chance that the reason we all stayed inside for two months will possibly be for nothing if we open the economy too soon. These are tough decisions to make, but people in power should follow the science. They should make sure of what policy should be enacted before they do it. People’s lives are hanging in the balance of their decisions.
I do agree with jobs opening for people who need income to pay bills, but places that are opening for fun activities like the mall, Six Flags and the movie theaters should remain closed. I want to go out with friends to the movies and to the amusement parks as much as anyone, but there is a more important thing to do now and that is keeping this disease under control, for the safety of everyone. Essential places should be places for work only, as well as big supermarkets to stop the spread. The economy will rise one way or another but rushing to reopen is not going to help anyone.
If China, who first started this virus, understood how to manage its people and businesses, I am very sure the United States does as well but chooses not to, in fear of a big crash. Although we should take China as an example they are almost back to normal and their economy is slowly but surely rising. Look at other places like Italy where cases were terrible. They also remained calm and closed down and things got better over time. The point is to stay home and away from others, the economy will not go anywhere.
This isn’t the first pandemic to ever happen: there have been the Bird Flu and the Swine Flu pandemics, the Spanish Flu and many more. Years later the economy rose and right now it is on hold again. Let us do our best as a society to ensure that those in charge make the right decisions.
