The restaurant and bar business has seen the worst of the pandemic. No one person has done more damage to the hospitality industry than Trump himself. By contradicting scientist early on in the pandemic and by promoting to his followers to defy masks orders from state and local governments, he helped the virus spread. Then, on January 6th he fomented a crowd of his supporters to storm the capital and fight for his made-up fraudulent election. Every single one of these events costs restaurants and bars billions of dollars a thousand at a time. Made up of small units of no more than a few dozen employees, small bars and restaurants are greatly affected by those decisions. Our economy has been driven by cheap goods and consumerism for many decades now. That said, shutting down the economy would have been devastating but manageable given the scope of how a virus persisting within a population can create fear with long-lasting economic effects stemming from the psychological effects of a false sense of security.