As COVID-19 runs rampant throughout the country, its deadly effect has reached beyond that of the medical genre. Thousands of small businesses have gone belly up in the wake of the pandemic, with mandatory lockdowns, social distancing guidelines, and increased vitality with each wave, local business owners are losing their livelihoods left and right. Some of these people have spent their entire lives propagating this business to sustain themselves and their families. Moreover, some of these establishments have cemented themselves as a pillar for the community in which they reside, this has become a double-edged sword, causing panic and despair as these businesses are plummeting with only bankruptcy insight. Yet, some people argue that the decline of these businesses was caused by these non-pharmaceutical interventions, saying that the restrictions placed on these businesses were the cause of the decrease in business. In this critical analysis, I plan on digging deeper into this disparity of small businesses by answering the question Is the COVID-19 pandemic to blame for the negative impact on US Small businesses? Or, did the implementation of non-pharmaceutical interventions place unnecessarily strict restrictions on businesses, subsequently causing a decline in success? There is a lot of disagreement around this topic as some have considered the adaptability of certain businesses during this pandemic as a sign of growth and longevity. Overall, in this critical analysis project, I will attempt to prove that COVID-19 has unknowingly brought a surge of innovation to small businesses across America as the ones that survived, successfully adapted to the changing world. In recent discussions of small business during covid 19, a controversial issue has been whether or not the NPI policies chosen were the best plan of action. On the one hand, some argue that Non-pharmaceutical intervention is the only course of action that allows businesses to stay afloat. On the other hand, some argue that allowing businesses to remain open in any capacity ensures more people will get sick. From this perspective, it is important to define if there is precedent regarding this kind of policy.

Statistically, the US endured a much more violent and fatal pandemic in the likes of the Spanish Influenza. In John M. Barry’s comprehensive book on the matter, The Great Influenza, he says “Influenza killed more people in a year than the Black Death of the Middle Ages killed in a century; it killed more people in twenty-four weeks than AIDS has killed in twenty-four years” (Barry 5). Even though there was an era of evolution and enlightenment for the United States Medical field just before the pandemic, all the synthesizing and evaluating of the virus has not been enough to adequately understand it. In an article published on the CDC website, entitled “History of the 1918 Flu Pandemic,” they say “With no vaccine to protect against influenza infection and no antibiotics to treat secondary bacterial infections that can be associated with influenza infections, control efforts worldwide were limited to non-pharmaceutical interventions such as isolation, quarantine, good personal hygiene, use of disinfectants, and limitations of public gatherings” (CDC 1). This shows how there is indeed precedent of NPI being used in the US for such infectious disease prevention and containment purposes. Furthermore, the precedent for such situations was during a much more fatal pandemic, almost as if, COVID-19 is the little, less fortuitous, brother of the Flu, and political actors and healthcare officials should have had some semblance of a tested plan to initiate.
My own view is that NPI was indeed the best plan of action regardless. Though I concede that these tactics may have caused more infections or at least were instituted poorly due to widespread panic and disagreement, I still maintain that protecting small businesses in plague time is crucial for survival. For example, if there was nothing done to aid small businesses when lockdowns first began, a majority of business owners would not last, and the US economy would pay dearly for it. By instituting NPI in the short absence of a vaccine, many businesses that would either be closed due to restrictions or not being deemed essential were forced into a bottleneck of evolution. The businesses that did survive grew stronger from the difficult circumstances and found new ways of operating, many times, those new ways being much more efficient.
One instance where the causes of the decline in business stemmed from the very policies of NPI was with a small yoga studio in Raleigh, North Carolina. Patrice Graham opened Colors Of Yoga Raleigh 3 years prior to the pandemic as an inclusive place for people of color and people of the LGBTQA+ community to practice yoga in a safe environment. Upon the studio’s opening, it was the only Black-owned yoga studio in the city and Graham was immensely proud of the studio’s positive effect on the community, as many patrons would stay for hours after yoga sessions to unwind. Once the coronavirus hit, Graham was forced to close the doors of her studio and move all of her classes to an online format over Zoom. This transition caused not only a downtick in success of her business but also a significant decrease in retention of clients. In an interview with CNBC Small Business Playbook, Patrice Graham said “I’m worried every single day, no matter what I do I’m going to be anxious and worried about if the yoga studio will survive” (Adamcyzk). When the coronavirus first hit, small business owners across the country were bracing themselves for a brief financial crisis in the looming danger of the virus, now as we have endured almost an entire year of the virus, many small business owners are operating on the verge of bankruptcy or have shut down completely.
Quantifying exactly how many businesses closed due to the coronavirus pandemic and the surrounding circumstances is difficult as it most definitely needs context. The relative effect of the pandemic on small businesses can depend on many factors such as the number of employees or even industry. According to the Frequently asked questions page of the US Small Business Officer of Advocacy, they say “During the beginning of the pandemic, businesses with between 20 to 49 employees had the largest employment decline of any size group… The pandemic has affected some industries more than others. As Figure 5 shows, Accommodation and Food Services along with Arts and Recreation are some of the hardest-hit industries so far” (SBA 2). This shows how small businesses are not being wiped across the board, instead, it is a much more complex issue since aspects as minute as the number of employees or genre of business can affect the degree at which the business suffers.
Many citizens worry about the “thousands of closures” reported on major news networks and interpret them as the end of days. Yet, even the distinction of a business closing is not black and white. For instance, the claim made by Senator Amy Klobuchar on Twitter that “800 businesses, a day, were closing across the country” is an interesting one. She cites a Local Economic Impact Report done by Yelp in September of 2020 as one of her sources. Yelp notes that by August 15th, 97,966 businesses were marked closed on the app, opposed to 36,718 in April of the same year. However, this report marks the statistics for both temporary closures and permanently closed businesses. If you were to take the average of just the permanent closures, the number of businesses closing a day would average out to be approximately 500, not 800.
On the other hand, the US Small Business Office of Advocacy reports that in a not pandemic year “In 2017, 1 million business establishments opened, and 898,000 establishments closed (Figure 4)” (SBA 2). Thus, in a normal year, the US sees an average of 2,500 business closures a day. This goes to show that small business closures are very apparent even if there is no global pandemic causing closures for public health concerns, or non-pharmaceutical interventions causing closures due to financial concerns. This aspect of the controversy muddies the water in terms which is truly at fault for the downturn of US Small business during the pandemic.
COVID-19 itself has been the cause of many trials and tribulations of humanity in the past year, and many argue that it was indeed the cause of the downturn in US small business. For example, in an article for The Journal News, a newspaper in New York state, they discuss the many difficulties and obstacles faced by businesses in their attempts to reopen, find financial relief, and survive during the pandemic, it says “A survey from the Restaurant Association noted that despite expanded capabilities and increased demand for delivery and off-site consumption during the pandemic, the majority of restaurants in New York were unable to recoup more than 30% of their lost revenue due to the pandemic and government-mandated restrictions” (Marroquin 2). This shows that even though certain aspects of the businesses, especially restaurants, became more streamlined and easier to accomplish because of the effect of the pandemic, the negative effect the coronavirus had on business revenue margins was substantial, and in many cases, substantial enough to warrant both temporary and permanent closures.
All in all, a close examination of what really caused the small business sector of the US economy to take a downturn in success shows that both Non-pharmaceutical interventions and the actual viral outbreak of the SARS-C0V-2 virus were at fault. Though I do concede that NPI was a necessary step for the greater good, as many people would prioritize a shorter pandemic and a safer lifestyle over economic success. NPI did however create immense pressure in certain cases, like that of Patrice Graham, and how her yoga studio was forced onto Zoom.
As the COVID-19 Pandemic continues today, the world is slowly becoming more hopeful each day that the end is nigh, and spirits are beginning to lift once again, we must remember the profound impact the coronavirus had on our way of life. It may be decades or even centuries until we fully comprehend the total effect the virus had on our economy, but if it were to flare up again, confirming the worst fears of those sheltering in place practicing social distancing guidelines, and COVID-19 were to place the final nail in the coffin of the US economy, in some way shape or form, the autopsy of the economy must read NPI and the coronavirus.