Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Tom Wolf takes precautions with mask and temperature check

A revealing new study by two University of Chicago economists indicates that fear of COVID (a/k/a COVID-19 or Coronavirus) has had a greater negative impact on the U.S. economy than government-imposed Coronavirus lockdowns, as Americans make their own choices for themselves and their families. Among the findings from Drs. Austan Goolsbee (former Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Barack Obama) and Chad Syverson, based on cell phone records of customers visiting over 2 million businesses:

–“While overall consumer traffic fell by 60 percentage points, legal restrictions explain only 7 of that.”

–“Individual choices were far more important and seem tied to fears of infection.”

–“Traffic started dropping before the legal [shutdown] orders were in place; was highly tied to the number of COVID deaths in the county; and showed a clear shift by consumers away from larger/busier stores toward smaller/less busy ones in the same industry.”

The study appears to indicate that (1) many Americans feared the Coronavirus even though they were being told by Republican politicians not to fear it; and (2) based on the current explosion in COVID cases, those fears were perfectly rational.