A matter of when.

We will be opening up the economy sooner or later, with the rate of deaths only determined WHEN, not if. That is, a continued high rate of deaths will delay the reopening, but opening up remains an inevitability.

Lots of people in both the open right now, and open later camps think that reopening will coincide with measures to increase safety.

Right. Let's pause for a moment and think about the TSA's security theatre and it's demonstrated failures.

Safety measures for show!

Real "security" measures will often look like the one pictured below. Or, like the drive through cashier at the local Wendy's who's handled every customers' credit card with the same glove on her hand. Or the girl at the food pickup window who was wearing her mask below her chin and talking to people.

Some places will do well, but inevitably, others will do terribly. At first pass, I expect that with fewer customers, a place has a better chance of enacting effective measures. However, the busiest places where most people go and are at risk from being closer than 6ft apart, will struggle with effective safety precautions.

The fact of the matter is. Opening up means taking on more risk, and I doubt that we can mitigate the virus fully with the kind of "safety" measures proposed. However, I don't don't doubt that we'll open up. My only gripe is that there is going to be a lot of pretense of safety, lots of safety theatre, but not that much reality.