NEW YORK: Promising news about a coronavirus vaccine has small business owners feeling more upbeat despite cases of the virus surging in many parts of the US.
Owners hope consumers and businesses will be more relaxed about spending now that two drug companies, Pfizer and Moderna, have vaccines that data show were highly effective in testing. Some owners are rethinking their plans — some are holding off on staff cuts, while others say they are more likely to renew their office leases even as employees still work from home.
But owners also realize many hurdles remain — the vaccines still require approval by the Food and Drug Administration, and then it will take time for millions of doses to be manufactured and widely distributed. It is not clear how many people will decide to receive the vaccine, and in turn, how much of the population would be immune to the virus.
Meanwhile, the pandemic shows no signs of abating heading into the winter, prompting some state and local officials to increase restrictions on gatherings in public and private places. And regardless of what steps governments take, many people are limiting their activities, as they fear contracting the virus.
The pandemic has hit small businesses particularly hard. They do not have the same cash reserves and access to lines of credit as larger businesses to help make up for a drop in revenue. While it is not known how many companies have permanently closed during the pandemic, based on an estimate issued by the National Bureau of Economic Research during the spring the actual number is probably well into the hundreds of thousands. Additional government restrictions could put more companies at risk.
“The vaccine’s not coming tomorrow — it’s going to take a while,” says Michael Goldberg, an entrepreneurship professor at Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management. “It’s going to be tough.”
In the meantime, recent data show air travel in the US is still down about 65 percent from a year ago and hotel occupancy remains below 50 percent.
US hopes to start virus vaccines in December as pandemic surgesOxford scientists expect COVID-19 vaccine data by Christmas