Reopening Dilemmas Turn Personal

Derek Canavaggio ran the numbers and decided it wasn’t worth reopening the bar he manages in Athens, Georgia, according to The Atlantic.  

After Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp reversed his statewide shutdown on April 24, Canavaggio decided no reopening scenario seemed sustainable or worth risking lives. “If we tried to open on Monday, we’d be closed in two weeks, probably for good and with more debt on our hands,” he said.

Even as President Trump assured Americans during a Lincoln Memorial broadcast yesterday that it was safe to reopen, governors were struggling with tough reopening decisions as well as lockdown protests, The Washington Post reports.  

Coronavirus task force coordinator Deborah Birx said yesterday that protests at Michigan’s capitol were “devastatingly worrisome” because people could carry the virus home to grandparents, according to NPR.

To many in Georgia (and elsewhere), the personal reopening decision isn’t easy: “risk death at work, or risk ruining yourself financially at home,” writes The Atlantic’s Amana Mull.