As a virus sweeps across the nation, the American people have been forced to undergo a radical shift in daily routines. Our lives have been upended and so too has the conduction of critical practices such as work and education.
Many worried over the potential gaps in existing resources vital for continued societal operation, both in terms of physical resources such as masks and intellectual resources such as the effective educational instruction of our state’s children.
Thankfully, private enterprise has stepped up to the plate in a historic way. Businesses are transitioning to fill the existing gaps and provide the supplies and information that the country needs. In Mississippi, we have seen local business leaders bravely take risks in order to fill critical needs.
A few days ago, I had the chance to talk with leaders of the Bailey Education Group, including founder, Gary Bailey, and Vice President, Pat Ross. The organization is committed to offering high level coaching and instruction to teachers and leaders as they seek to better the education of their students. Today, they have played a leading role in supporting schools as they transition to alternative education initiatives in this unique situation by offering digital coaching resources, online content, and webinars that allow teachers and administrative leaders to discuss existing problems and potential solutions.
Bailey recognized that “education is a vital part of every child’s life.” In so doing, he wanted to develop a company that was committed to helping kids learn more effectively. This passion drove him to found the Bailey Education Group in 2007. Since then, he has brought together a team of effective educational leaders with a great depth of experience to further this mission.
The Bailey Education Group is a results-oriented company, and Bailey even noted to me that their ultimate goal is to work themselves out of a job. Indeed they focus their work on schools that have room for improvement as they attempt to imitate pathways to success that have been found in other districts around the state.
Today, the coronavirus pandemic has necessitated a foundational reevaluation of our societal approach to education as new methods of instruction have been needed amidst mandated social distancing and shelter-in-place orders.
With about 85 percent of the Bailey Education Group’s work being focused on teacher and school leader instruction and training, they needed to quickly adapt. While this transition was not easy, Ross noted that the organization “knew [they] needed to turn the company into a virtual operation.” They have now transitioned all their coaching sessions to online video calls. This has allowed teachers to both continue their training initiatives while also being provided a digital recording that they can look back on and use as a resource to review and continue seeking improvement moving forward.
The integration of technology into the classroom has become a critical component of many education models. Bailey noted that, “[t]echnology changed education to a great degree, but many school districts have not caught up.” While some schools already readily use digital tools to supplement the students’ education, others have not made these strides yet. This reality has made the current crisis all the more difficult for many previously struggling schools and has highlighted the need for support during this time of transition.
The Bailey Education Group has created electronic and live content to help schools teach certain subjects when they may be lacking in an area. With the wealth of education experience collected through the Group, this initiative now empowers almost every district across Mississippi to have a student learn algebra or other courses from one of the best teachers in the state.
This model can be used to supplement existing classrooms and also support long-term substitutes in classrooms which lack a highly qualified teacher, due to the critical teacher shortage.
Ross noted how BEG has taken on the responsibility of networking education leaders across the state in order to solve problems together. They are hosting video conference sessions that give teachers and administrative leaders the opportunity to discuss ongoing issues and challenges. Ross offered hope that these sessions could become more regular and even break down into smaller regional groups so that individuals could hold more personal discuss with colleagues facing similar issues in their fields.
Bailey and Ross noted that these sessions have offered a place for school leaders to talk about a variety of ongoing challenges, including the continued provision of food to students, access to technology, and budgeting.
For many students, school is the one place where they are sure to get a reliable meal each day. Every school in the state is working to continue providing this critical resource and this has been one of the widely discussed challenges that the Bailey Education Group’s virtual sessions have brought administrative leaders together to discuss.
Not every kid has a computer, internet service, or cellphone access. Thus, while some schools have students tuning into class digitally, others have no option but to print off workbooks and send them to students. Students then complete the work and send them back in to teachers so they can be reviewed and graded. The coronavirus has put these additional challenges on full display and highlighted the need to facilitate technology access across the state.
As we transition out of this crisis, many facets of society are likely to change, including our approach to education. The Bailey Education Group leaders expressed hope that we can continue to use technology as a positive educational supplement. No matter what new approaches are taken, Bailey noted to me that, “[m]ath is still math and algebra is still algebra, but how one teaches it will change”
When it comes to technology, Ross noted his fundamental optimism that kids are flexible and would readily be able to make further transitions. Having grown up in a digital age, they are in a position where they can quickly adapt to new changes in the classroom. Thankfully the Bailey Education Group is there to ease that transition for teachers and district leaders as well.
Bailey pointed to the critical importance of personal interaction in the teaching process stating that, “human interaction is the best way to learn, be it over computer or face-to-face. This interaction is central to a child’s livelihood and improvement.” By helping to guide a more effective conversion to digital instruction, Bailey’s organization has assisted in the continuing of Mississippi children’s education.
With hope, we will be able to transition out of our current situation sooner rather than later. However, whatever the timeline ends up being, we will never fully return to the world we knew in January. As a state and as a nation, we will be tasked with making fundamental changes to many critical parts of our society, including education.
This situation has hastened the integration of technology and digital learning platforms into the classroom. Students and teachers have been forced to adjust to this, but in so doing have opened up a world of opportunity for future innovative changes to our existing education structures. As we move forward, undoubtedly the leaders who supported our students and teachers in this trying time, such as the Bailey Education Group, will be remembered.
These businesses that are stepping up deserve to be highlighted, and so the Mississippi Center for Public Policy is publishing a series dedicated to doing just that. Over the coming weeks, we aim to continue showcasing the stories of these local businesses, including Blue Delta Jeans in Tupelo, Rich Grain Distilling Company, and now the Bailey Education Group who have willingly given up their normal operating procedures to help people.
If you know of a local Mississippi business that is helping those in need during this critical time, we’d love to highlight the work that they’re doing. Please email Hunter Estes via [email protected] to discuss further.
Now is the time to put the economic pieces back together, but it won’t be easy.
We are called “These United States” because a one-size-fits-all solution rarely works. There are massive differences between our states. Some are largely metropolitan, some are mostly rural. Some have mostly warm climates, some are Alaska. Ultimately, the states are best equipped, and constitutionally empowered, to make decisions about public policy in their own sovereign spheres.
We didn’t abide by these fundamentals over the past couple of months and our demolished economy is the result. Now that we know much more about the coronavirus, we’ll need to move quickly back to federalism and capitalism if we hope to rebuild an economy that was enjoying unprecedented growth and job participation before the pandemic.
Unsurprisingly, the data is showing us that the most vulnerable are those 65 and over with comorbidities like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity. And old age determined hospitalization and death to a greater degree than any of these underlying conditions. This information comes from a New York City Langone Health Center study of coronavirus patients, the largest one to date. Despite how desperately some journalists want us to see COVID-19 as an example of implicit racism, the study found “less influence” with regard to race. In other words, we know who really needs the attention of our resources and quarantine measures and it’s not healthy Americans and their school-age children.
The data is also overwhelming in terms of the vulnerability of elderly care facility residents. It’s only common sense that elderly people living in facilities without lots of sunlight and fresh air and in close proximity, are going to be even more vulnerable. It seems this group of Americans needed our care, our technology, and our quarantine.
Helping the sick should not mean controlling the healthy. We can help the sick without violating civil liberties and without disintegrating our economy. We can choose to use a scalpel or a knife instead of a sledgehammer. We can honor the personal responsibility and common sense of citizens rather than impose a virtual martial law in the name of preventing every person, including healthy citizens, from getting sick. But this is what happens when we demand our government solve all our problems and cure all our diseases. Why would we ask this of the same government that manages the USPS, the IRS, and the DMV?
On the day most Americans are normally mailing off their tax payments to the IRS, most Americans are receiving a payment from the IRS, or will later this week. What an upside-down world it is!
Millions of small business owners and nonprofits are anxiously awaiting Payroll Protection loans from the Small Business Administration, through their local banks, in an effort to keep employees employed. The $350 billion allocated from Congress is supposedly flowing through the system and will be exhausted by week’s end and Congress is debating another $250 billion for small businesses. Expect a lot of pork to be added to the plan. It’s clear that certain ideological partisans are not about to let a pandemic go by without attempting to leverage it to the max. They see this as a rare gift to justify massive and permanent government spending and control of the economy. This puts us at something near $6 trillion in costs to “compensate” for the sledgehammer approach. And the various “stimulants” are only getting started.
Industries are being bailed out, states are receiving billions to compensate for lost revenue, and the Federal Reserve is now a crisis lender. These types of actions lead us toward a dangerous precipice. The American economic system is based largely on the energy and interplay of private businesses, private banks, capital providers, and consumers. If our federal government continues to add massive spending and its related borrowing, it could crowd out free enterprise and capitalism as the preferred recovery mechanism. That’s not a future we should want.
According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, all of this spending will produce a deficit of $3.8 trillion this fiscal year. That is three times the largest deficit in U.S. history. Interest on our national debt is now the fourth largest item in the federal budget. Just wait until we calculate the intertest costs on the ballooning debt after all of these measures to counter the effect of the sledgehammer!
The best way to counter our cratering economy is to get people back to work.
Americans love to work hard and play hard. We can’t do either right now. We can’t even watch others play hard. The governors should take the lead here, with some general guidance from the White House and the President’s healthcare and economic advisors. Governors know what things look like on the ground in their states. It makes no sense for Mississippi and New York to be using the same strategy. And we need action now.
Small business owners are running out of savings and cash to keep employees. White collar workers, like lawyers, doctors, marketers, and accountants, are feeling the same pain that many service level workers felt six weeks ago. Formerly healthy companies are rapidly filing bankruptcies. Banks are setting aside billions to deal with defaults and bad loans. Consumers are maxing out credit cards and missing mortgage payments. This cannot continue.
Mississippi has just under three million residents. As of today, 122 Mississippians have died. While there will be more, and every life is precious, we should recognize our numbers of confirmed cases and confirmed deaths are quite small. Our testing numbers and our capacity for hospital beds and emergency equipment compare well to most of our neighbors and other states.
We need to stay vigilant and listen carefully to healthcare experts, but we can do this while we start opening up our economy. These are not mutually exclusive actions. Keeping nearly three million people in quarantine for much longer is not the correct public policy.
Gov. Tate Reeves should be given credit for his approach to date. He has resisted the urge to act like an authoritarian and given local leaders the flexibility to govern, until such time as a statewide approach was required. And his instinct on not trying to force churches to close was correct. Now let’s see how his instincts are on how to reopen the economy. We know Reeves will have loud detractors on social media, but it’s time to put the pieces of our economy back together. It just won’t be easy.
Gov. Tate Reeves has named a team of business leaders to help guide the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic that has devastated the state’s economy.
The state has seen a 9000 percent increase in unemployment claims over the past month while businesses that have been forced to close fight for their survival during the statewide shelter-in-place.
Reeves issued the order on April 1. It is set to expire on Monday, though Reeves could extend it. Prior to Reeves, numerous local governments issued similar orders closing restaurants and numerous businesses, while only allowing people to leave their house for essential travel.
“We need Mississippians helping Mississippians. I have asked a trusted group of our state’s top business minds to do just that. Under the ‘Restart Mississippi’ umbrella, they are going to develop a series of recommendations and goals for our new economy. They will study the impact of COVID-19 on our workforce and small businesses. And they will help us recover—day by day,” Reeves said in a press release.
The committee is chaired by Joe Sanderson of Sanderson Farms. Also serving on the executive team are Tom Gresham, president of Delta Council, John Hairston of Hancock Whitney, Jonathan Jones of Jones Capital, Colby Lane of Veriforce, and Tim Smith of Avectus Healthcare Solutions.
The spread of the coronavirus pandemic has uprooted many in this country, and all over the world. Kids are at home. The same place many of us are working. If you still have a job at all. Things are being done differently. We watch church online. We use Zoom video conferencing instead of face-to-face meetings. We pick up our groceries and restaurant orders, or we get them delivered to our house.
With time, normalcy in our day-to-day lives will return. Schools will open. Sporting events will come back. Toilet paper will be in stock. And perhaps the way government functions will change as well. Before we have another crisis on our hands.
Because as the current pandemic crystalized, we witnessed how government regulations often got in the way and stymied the help they are designed to provide. This was true in the past, it is true today, and will be true in the future.
Once the coronavirus began to spread, we saw numerous regulations repealed almost overnight. Particularly regulations that limit access to healthcare and seem to do nothing but protect the interest of market incumbents.
One of those regulations is Certificate of Need laws, something the federal government repealed more than three decades ago but they are still on the books in Mississippi. These laws circumvent the normal supply and demand process and require would-be medical providers to prove — essentially to their competitors —that their community needs a new facility or service. And they are one of the reasons we see a shortage of hospital beds during a time of crisis. That is why we have seen both Republican and Democratic governors in other states roll back such regulations during this time. Bills have been introduced virtually every year to repeal CONs in Mississippi, and 2020 was no different than prior years. The issue wasn’t even considered, and it died in committee without a vote or a discussion.
A positive change that we have seen in virtually every state was an expansion of telemedicine, something that is vitally important in a rural state like Mississippi, pandemic or not. And the state has been recognized as an early leader in this technology. Yet that doesn’t mean we don’t have restrictions in place. Almost immediately, we began to see states waive the requirement that you can only use an in-state physician. Mississippi did that. And then just as quickly walked back that change to only allow this if you have a prior patient-physician relationship, greatly limiting your options as a consumer. Mississippians should be able to access the doctor or nurse practitioner of their choosing, regardless of the state they are licensed.
Speaking of nurse practitioners, if we want to increase healthcare access, the state should move to allow nurse practitioners to practice to their full practice authority. Today, they are required to enter into a “collaborative agreement” with a physician if a nurse practitioner wishes to open their own clinic. Particularly in rural communities where we see a shortage of doctors, nurse practitioners could fill that role. If the state would let them.
Another bill that the legislature let quietly die in committee was universal recognition of occupational licenses. Meaning, if you received a license in Tennessee, you can work in Mississippi without jumping through the normal bureaucratic hoops. After all, just because you move doesn’t mean you forget how to practice your skill. To increase the supply or nurses, many states, including Mississippi, said they would allow nurses licensed in other states to work in their state.
This should be standard practice. Not something that requires an emergency declaration. If someone has received an occupational license in another state, the state should recognize that license and allow them to immediately work in Mississippi. We don’t know what the economy is going to look like when the pandemic passes, but one of our main goals should be to make it easier to work.
As we’ve seen, it is the overburdensome government rules and regulations that tend to get in the way. If may be something as serious as healthcare access or as simple as alcohol delivery, another bill the legislature killed this year.
The truth is this happens every day of the year. Rather than waiting for the next crisis, now is the time to roll back regulations that prevent people from earning a living, accessing the healthcare they need, or using technology to make our lives easier and better.
As the coronavirus pandemic sweeps across the nation, it was revealed that we were critically short on certain medical necessities including hand sanitizer, masks, and ventilators.
Many feared for what would be a soon to come shortfall on these items that are medically critical to prevent further spread of the virus and effectively treat those who have it. Thankfully, private enterprise has stepped up to the plate in a historic way. Businesses are transitioning to fill the existing gaps and provide the supplies that the country needs. In Mississippi, we have seen local business leaders bravely take risks in order to fill critical medical needs.
A few days ago, I had the chance to speak with David Rich of Rich Grain Distilling Company in Canton. He has shifted his entire company from making bourbon to producing hand sanitizer en masse.
When it comes to sanitizer, it has proven a vital and yet over-purchased resource, leaving many fire departments, police units, hospices, hospitals and more in serious need. Hand sanitizer is an incredibly important tool for countering this virus and deterring its spread.
Unfortunately, many folks are finding their local providers’ shelves to be empty. While in a local drug store a few weeks ago, David noticed that the store was running out of hand sanitizer, so he offered to try making some.
What began as a hobby years ago, led to a distillery, and now is the reason that thousands in Canton, including many emergency service providers still have access to hand sanitizer today. A Madison County native, David was working in mechanical engineering for a defense contractor while researching bourbon and its production in his free time. Ultimately, he decided to pursue his dream and opened the doors of Rich Grain Distilling in 2016.
In a normal situation, burdensome regulations would have prohibited distilleries such as Rich Grain Distilling from being able to make this transition. Luckily, as David noted, the “federal government decided to lift certain regulations,” allowing for specific companies such as distilleries to move their operations into the production of much-needed resources like hand sanitizer.
The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau waived requirements to obtain permits to legally manufacture hand sanitizer and removed the excise tax for alcohol-based hand sanitizer products. That wasn’t all. The Food and Drug Administration then had to issue guidance saying they do not “intend to take action against manufacturing firms that prepare alcohol‐based hand sanitizers for consumer use and for use as health care personnel hand rubs during this ongoing public health emergency.”
The difficult element of the transition was processing ingredients and working with suppliers to secure necessary bottles and other resources. High proof alcohol is then mixed with other products in the necessary process to create sanitizer.
While he’s making less per unit, demand has been high, and this has allowed him to retain his staff and even bring on a few new employees. Thus, he is not only fulfilling the critical needs of his community by helping local providers but is also able to continue offering a steady paycheck in a time of dire economic need for many.
I asked David if he had any plans for continued sanitizer production once the coronavirus crisis is over and he noted to me that, he doesn’t “want to be in the hand sanitizer business.” Naturally, he’d greatly prefer to be making the bourbon that first inspired his distillery to open. But, for now he’s happy that he’s been able to help people in his community. Indeed, I think while some are currently missing the taste of Rich Grain Distilling bourbon, it will be appreciated all the more in the future, especially knowing how David Rich took business risks to help his community when it was most in need.
David is currently operating at capacity, and so unless you are a representative of an emergency service or essential business, please do not attempt to place any current additional orders of sanitizer.
These businesses that are stepping up deserve to be highlighted, and so the Mississippi Center for Public Policy is launching a series dedicated to doing just that. Over the coming weeks, we aim to continue showcasing the stories of these local businesses, including Blue Delta Jeans in Oxford and now Rich Grain Distilling Company, who have willingly given up their normal operating procedures to help as many people as they possibly can.
If you know of a local Mississippi business that is helping those in need during this critical time, we’d love to highlight the work that they’re doing. Please email Hunter Estes via [email protected] to discuss further.
Healthcare is complicated. But during the current coronavirus outbreak, healthcare policy goals are very simple: How do we increase the supply of healthcare for those who need it most? And how do we increase access to healthcare to those who need it most?
Right now, the real challenge is prioritizing very limited healthcare resources. The people who need care the most are, obviously, patients who are suffering life-threatening complications from the coronavirus. Care must also be prioritized for those who have other life-threatening events, such as a heart attack, a stroke or an auto accident.
Seen in this light, it becomes clear that calls to expand Medicaid to able-bodied adults are, not only a sorry example of political opportunism, but an immoral and wasteful redistribution of healthcare resources that need to be safeguarded for more vulnerable populations.
One of the most regrettable things about the Obamacare Medicaid expansion is that it provides a 90 percent federal match to states that expand Medicaid insurance to low-income, able-bodied, working-age adults. That’s right – the expansion only applies to adults who either can work or are working and who are not disabled, not elderly and who do not have children. Given that we have disabled children and elderly people on a Medicaid services waiting list, one would have thought that D.C. would have provided a 90 percent match to cover these patients.
No doubt, able-bodied adults without insurance are at-risk of catching the coronavirus. But they are not, by definition, a high-risk category. Moreover, these individuals already have access to a vast array of other government welfare programs, such as SNAP (food stamps), Obamacare health insurance exchange coverage, and the federal earned income tax credit (EITC). The federal government fully funds each of these three programs.
Consider also that subsidized health insurance exchange coverage is already available to people who earn between 100 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level. If Mississippi were to expand Medicaid, this subsidized coverage would disappear for anyone earning between 100 percent and 138 percent of the federal poverty level. Again, this coverage is fully funded by the federal government. In addition, Mississippi has one of the highest EITC participation rates in the country. As of December 2019, more than 350,000 Mississippi individuals and families received $1 billion in ETIC subsidies. This number will only increase as 2020 wears on.
Likewise, able-bodied, working-age adults will be benefitting in numerous ways from generous waivers and payments being offered by federal and state governments in response to the coronavirus, including a massive increase in unemployment benefits as well as direct cash payments to every American. The federal government is also waiving all current SNAP work requirements, providing supplemental SNAP benefits, expanding school meal and other food service programs, providing hundreds of millions more for the WIC food program, and sending tens of billions more to states to help pay for higher Medicaid costs. The Trump administration even withdrew a proposed rule aimed at reducing improper Medicaid enrollment and fraud.
Already, the second coronavirus relief package, passed by Congress on March 18, increased the federal share of Mississippi Medicaid payments by 6.2 percent. This means that the current federal match for Medicaid has increased from a highest-in-the-nation 76.98 percent to a still highest-in-the-nation 83.18 percent. Medicaid, Medicare and private insurers are also being reimbursed to offer free COVID-19 testing and related services. Uninsured patients can get tested at no-cost, thanks to an additional $1 billion set aside.
These payouts are dwarfed by the third $2 trillion relief package which includes more than $100 billion for hospitals. The American Hospital Association is demanding billions more and is likely to get it.
Time will tell whether these investments will stimulate the economy or bankrupt the country. What is clear is that states, like Mississippi, will be experiencing budget shortfalls. What is also clear, as demonstrated in state after state that has expanded Medicaid, is that the cost will be far more than projected. These costs, however, are only monetary. We have to acknowledge the human cost of expanding Medicaid.
Gold-standard research shows that expanding Medicaid increases the demand for healthcare services while delivering no improved physical health outcomes. Expanding Medicaid won’t make people healthier. And it won’t get better care to people who have the coronavirus. Let’s save the debate over Medicaid expansion for after this crisis passes and instead focus on solutions we know will work.
This column appeared in the Clarion Ledger on April 5, 2020.
In this episode of Unlicensed, we talk with Josh Archambault of FGA about how many states are responding to the coronavirus pandemic by expanding telemedicine options. Meanwhile, Mississippi is making it more difficult for patients to access the doctor of their choice via telemedicine.
The Department of Revenue announced today that they are allowing patrons in a Leisure and Recreation District (LRD) to leave with a mixed drink from their to go order.
This means if you live in one of the 19 LRDs in the state, you can order a mixed drink with your curbside order and take it home.
"Due to the emergency situation all Mississippians are facing, ABC is now allowing drinks in the "to go" orders made by patrons for curbside pick-up if the restaurant is located in an LRD," the order reads.
The following cities are designated LRDs: Bay St. Louis, Tupelo, Ridgeland, Jackson, Gulfport, Biloxi, Ocean Springs, Brandon, Clinton, Diamondhead, D’Iberville, Hattiesburg, Laurel, Long Beach, Moss Point, Natchez, Pascagoula, Pass Christian, and Vicksburg.
Restaurants will still be prohibited from selling you a mixed drink if they are located outside one of the allowable cities because it it prohibited by state law.
Over the past few weeks, DOR has made updated multiple regulations to make it easier to purchase alcohol. Along with the most recent change, liquor stores can now take orders online or over the phone, while providing curbside delivery rather than having to enter the retail establishment. You are also allowed to purchase a sealed bottle of wine with their to-go order.
These actions were previously illegal.
On Friday evening, businesses deemed non-essential closed their doors in Mississippi as they have been doing over the past couple weeks to combat the coronavirus pandemic that has spread across the country.
Was this the right call? Was it too much or too little and too late? Regardless of what the blue checkmarks say, I will defer to the experts who are making those decisions and guiding the governor through these unthinkable times.
My family is doing the best we can to stay safe, and that’s really all we can control. Just like your family is all you can control.
But as we went for a ride on Saturday around lunchtime, we got a weird feeling going through the empty parking lots of the normally bustling Dogwood Festival Market off of Lakeland Drive in Flowood. Of course, as you drive near the Target, Kroger, or Lowe's you probably see more traffic than normal.
But across the street near Belk, Old Navy, HomeGoods, Bath and Body Works, etc., you see a sprawling empty parking lot. For those who are fans of dead malls, it was as if that is what you entered. Except the signage was intact and the landscaping was freshly manicured.
Yet tucked in between large national chains are numerous small businesses, such as Time 4 Toys, a rare independent toy store that competes every day with the likes of Walmart and Amazon. That was already enough of a challenge. Not being able to open their doors is just the latest obstacle.
But they, like many others, are getting creative. They’re offering free delivery within a 10 miles radius of the Flowood store. They are also offering curbside pickup from 11-2 during the week for those who place orders online. If you’re struggling to find something, send them a Facebook or Instagram message or call the store. They will be there to help you.
And that’s just one of the many, many retailers who are trying to survive financially. Because as has been said, this is not just a health crisis. It’s also a financial crisis. The 30,000 Mississippians who filed for unemployment last week can attest to that.
We don’t know when the health issues will pass or when we will all be safe to go about our daily lives. The stay at home order is in effect until April 20, but it could certainly be extended. Beyond not knowing when we’ll return to normal, we don’t even know what normal will look like.
Will we be ready to go into restaurants or will we stick with the convenience of food delivery apps? Will we maintain our virtual approach to business with more people working from home or attending conferences in another state without having to leave town? Will you feel safe being within five feet of another person?
Maybe. Like most everything going on right now, we don’t know is the only answer we can be sure of.
But for those who have kids who enjoy going into a toy store – and those whose livelihood depends on it – we can just hope that our small businesses make it.