Eventually, but an immense amount of capital (not just in a cash sense) that allows those businesses to operate has been irreparably destroyed. Rebuilding and bootstrapping that again from almost nothing will take years in many cases. Businesses don't exist in isolation, some sectors are seeing destruction not just of the businesses but the entire institutional structure of their ecosystems, which is much harder to replace.
There will be second-order effects that people aren't considering. In Seattle, for example, all of the builders I know are saying multi-family residential construction projects have become indefinitely non-viable due to the systemic collapse of the business ecosystem they rely on. Even if things opened up tomorrow, most of their projects will stay dead for the foreseeable future. This will have a large impact for housing costs, construction worker employment, etc many years beyond the term of the lockdown.
I think many people are oblivious to the long-term second-order damage that is being inflicted in some industries that cannot be fixed on any kind of timeframe that matters to ordinary people.
I'm not. Plenty of countries have shown that we can reopen without killing those at risk. The false choice of saving the economy vs saving the at-risk is an entirely political position and part of the propaganda machine you've fallen for.
Unfortunately, in the US, the federal government has presented the false choice of safety vs economy. Yes there are trade-offs in tactics, but it's not one or the other. Stop playing politics, unify messaging, and increase spending money on both. I'm helping organize projectdomino.org as part of staving off the currently-likely upcoming shitstorm of reopening without public health funding, coordination, infrastructure, and compliance. I encourage aiding local causes and telling your local Republican leaders that you're tired of their shit that has now stepped up to pathogens literally attacking us at home.
