I think perhaps the effects of a pandemic which killed upwards of 1m Americans may have had a base level of economic impact regardless of the mitigation measure

I think perhaps the effects of a pandemic which killed upwards of 1m Americans may have had a base level of economic impact regardless of the mitigation measures. Perhaps people forget that things like air travel, restaurants, and going into the office were shutting down naturally in the US even before government recommendations to do so. And there were actually very few US-wide mandates or anything resembling a government forced “shutting down the country” outside of restrictions on international air travel.