Body-based small businesses suffered disproportionately under pandemic lockdown rules

Evidence

Small businesses and freelancers who work with or on bodies were among the hardest hit by pandemic lockdowns. Some of the reasons for that made epidemiological sense: therapeutic work didn’t allow for social distancing, and exercise studios necessarily involve heavy breathing in enclosed spaces. But there were also ways that this sector got a particularly raw deal. Early Covid relief programs were heavily biased toward larger workplaces with many staff employees; small owner-operated fitness studios where most workers are on contract often fell through the cracks of government aid, even as they were still on the hook for massive urban rents. — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 569

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Milgrom’s work on how institutional design (lending, relief programs) structurally excludes certain firm types — here COVID aid’s bias toward staff-heavy workplaces.