Maybe they have no choice. I'm no expert on medical issues. What kind of companies are going to be shut down for the duration? Clearly certain companies are essential to remain open, but if all other employers are expected to close, we'll have massive unemployment for a few months.
I wonder if factories with workforces are expected to close? If a factory making furniture or appliances can operate, why not Nascar (without fans in attendance)?
In many if not most areas of the country, certainly most population centers, everything considered "non-essential" that is public facing will be ordered closed or heavily restricted over the course of the next 2-3 months. In terms of retail businesses, essential seems to mean grocery stores and pharmacies. In other words, the only operations that are allowed to remain open are the ones that if closed would cause greater calamity than the virus itself. Lack of available food and medicine would do that. If conditions were bad enough to demand mandatory in-home detention with no exceptions, the government would have to figure out how to deliver these supplies.
Side-note: when these types of closures occur, I don't see much mention of gas stations. Would gas stations be closed to restrict travel?
In terms of manufacturing and service industries, that will vary by region and severity of outbreaks. We're entering a war-time mindset. I would guess that most manufacturing that isn't targeted at supporting the 'war' effort itself will be ceased or heavily reduced during this time.
Yes, mass unemployment. The federal government is either going to have pay most Americans to sit at home in quarantine, or they're going to have to suspend mortgage, rent, and utility payments, and establish other emergency assistance for basic expenses. Either way, it's the federal government backing it all, as that's the only entity that can conceivably borrow and print money out of such a crisis.
Having said that, there is going to be no opening for anything considered entertainment under these conditions. Nothing that requires the gathering of an ever-shrinking number of people (we seem to be down to 10 now, not 25 or 50 or 250 as it was just a day or two ago). No TV or movie shoots as we've understood them, and no live sports.
Regarding NASCAR, anything that resembles a NASCAR race is completely untenable for the foreseeable future. Firstly, there will be heavy impediments to travel throughout the country very soon. I suppose if this were the sole issue, NASCAR could get "outside of the box" by congregating and racing in areas that haven't established such firm restrictions. However, they wouldn't be traveling from venue to venue that are on the existing schedule and making that work.
Secondly, the odds that someone we would consider to be important / essential personnel for a NASCAR Cup or Xfinity race not being infected with this coronavirus right now are slim, and those odds decrease with each passing day. For anything to open back up to allow for large-scale entertainment, the societal thinking on how infected people are treated would have to fundamentally change. Currently the standard protocol is to test (when available) a suspected case. If you have reason to believe that you came in contact with anyone who has tested positive, you are supposed to self-isolate for a minimum of 14 days and possibly be tested yourself. Think about how this creates a constant threat against any event. The moment one person tests positive, scores of others are taken out of commission immediately.
I don't see what would change that approach in the short-term.
This is awful. It looks dire for sports throughout 2020. I think we'll eventually reach a point where cases are in significant decline during summer months. However, threat of resurgence and new waves of infections when restrictions are loosened will remain present, and the government will have a shorter trigger to reinstate them the second time given the trauma after the first.
In terms of outside the box, for now, we're seeing high profile musicians stream concerts from their homes. It's just them and maybe a couple others playing. How does a sports league, let alone an auto racing series, do their version of that? I could see on-one-on basketball games between the biggest NBA stars, perhaps. Does that work on a race track? I don't know.
I'm bummed about what we're staring down at the moment, as I'm sure many are. I can see meaningful racing happening by mid- to late-summer, but I fear that it's going to be operating under that cloud mentioned that it could end again at any moment.
