The United States was nearing 200,000 COVID-19 deaths last week. That’s more than three times the number of Americans killed in the Vietnam War. Meanwhile, the pandemic death toll in Arkansas surpassed 1,000.
Virus cases per capita are now more than four times higher in the United States than in the average high-income developed nation, while total deaths per capita are more than twice as high, the Brookings Institution reported.
It should go without saying that the loss of life, the potential for survivors to experience long-term disability and the illness itself are the worst elements of the pandemic.
But there are so many other casualties — education, of course, but private enterprise and its workers too. Yelp reported last week that 97,966 U.S. businesses closed permanently between March 1 and Aug. 31. Restaurants and retail businesses have suffered the most. Enduring six months without a national pandemic strategy has proven fatal to these enterprises.
The National Restaurant Association reported last week that:
► 85% of Arkansas restaurant opera-tors say their total dollar sales in August were lower than in August 2019. Restaurant sales are down an average of 34%.
► 55% of Arkansas operators say their restaurants’ total operational costs, as a percent of sales, are higher than they were before the pandemic.
► 41% of Arkansas operators say that if business conditions remain the same or if the federal government fails to extend more aid, it is unlikely their restaurant will still be in business six months from now.
As Mervin Jebaraj, the director of the Center for Business & Economic Research at the University of Arkansas, recently told Assistant Editor Marty Cook, small businesses are bearing the economic brunt of COVID.
If it doesn’t seem fair, that’s because it’s not. And if it doesn’t seem rational, well, that’s also because it’s not.
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