We can argue about what should be open/closed, when things should or shouldn't reopen, etc., but I suspect the bigger issue is simply whether the population takes the threat seriously. Perhaps a restaurant can open at 50% capacity with a staff and customers that are careful, but if half the restaurant owners and most of the customers don't think it's a real problem, no one is going to be careful.
I don't mean things didn't need to have closed/shouldn't be closed in places now, but re-opening in a cultural moment when "coughing directly at each other to own the libs" was a thing was not ideal.
Take it seriously, tell people to wear masks even if you aren't meaningfully enforcing it, lead by example, stop downplaying it all as a liberal plot. That might have been enough! Maybe.
Ah, well, nevertheless.
