The COVID-19 pandemic will be remembered as one of the most seminal periods for anyone who lived through that world wide health crisis, including business owners and operators.
No matter how robust a business model a business may have had prior to the pandemic, it could have been forced to close and possibly even declare bankruptcy just by arbitrarily being designated as “non-essential” by the government.
Fortunately, the government provided much-needed grants and loans to help some small businesses survive that chaotic period. That was certainly the case for the Corridor Media Group, which publishes the Corridor Business Journal.
We wrote the following in this space in March of 2020:
“As much as we appreciate the self-sufficiency of private enterprise, government has a vital role to play in times of economic distress and natural disaster. This is one of those times. We were heartened to see our federal leaders working in a somewhat bipartisan manner to provide relief to individuals, small businesses and a variety of industries, because few will go through this crisis unscathed.”
The pandemic-induced shutdown was initially the worst hit to the U.S. economy since the Great Depression. The economic impact of the pandemic is still unfolding to this day.
This month marks the five-year anniversary of when COVID-19 was declared a worldwide epidemic.
The truth is we saw the very best and worst of our country and countrymen during this crisis.
Operation Warp Speed was a unique public-private partnership between the pharmaceutical industry and federal government to create a COVID-19 vaccine. The government provided nearly $10 billion to speed up private sector vaccine efforts.
This greatly accelerated the timeline for the development of vaccines through clinical trials, FDA review and mass vaccine distribution. Remarkably, this was done within nine months.
Closer to home, Integrated DNA Technologies, based in Coralville, was instrumental in helping the federal government supply kits for the diagnosis and detection of COVID-19.
“IDT is proud to play an important role in the fight against 2019-nCoV,” said spokesman Lee Betancourt of APCO Worldwide, which was then handling public affairs for IDT, in a March 16, 2020 University of Iowa newsletter. “We are the first company in the nation to have our primer and probe kits approved by (the CDC). Our primer and probe kits are a key component of the CDC testing protocol for the diagnosis and detection of COVID-19, for which the CDC obtained Emergency Use Authorization (EUA).”
Even local entrepreneurs like Jeff Quint of Cedar Ridge Distillery and Steve Shriver of EcoLips collaborated to help manufacture and distribute free alcohol-based hand sanitizers to help fight the spread of the virus.
On the negative side, which is still being fully realized, it has been estimated that more than one million Americans died, which is the biggest and most impactful result of COVID-19.
The federal government, which was mired in groupthink, quashed any dissent that didn’t adhere to public health mandates and subsequently infringed on the civil liberties of millions of citizens. It arbitrarily shut down sections of the economy, which further exacerbated an untenable political atmosphere and divided families and friendships.
The significant spending by the federal government likely kept the economy out of another great depression, but has contributed to persistent inflation.
Summing up the COVID-19 pandemic is difficult to do in a short space. We are thankful that we survived and hope that history will illustrate the resilience of America and Americans during this tumultuous period and help us do better next time.
