Business and Economy

Pandemic Economics: Are You More Likely To Catch COVID-19 At Your Salon Or The Gym?

WAMU 88.5 | By Charla Freeland

Published May 20, 2020 at 3:47 PM CDT

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Shoppers buy toilet paper, food and water at a store, as people begin to panic buy and stockpile essentials from fear that supplies will be affected by the spread of the COVID-19, coronavirus outbreak across the country, in Los Angeles, California.

Are you more likely to catch COVID-19 while getting your nails done or hitting the gym?

Researchers at the University of Chicago examined cell phone data from 2019 to measure how crowded businesses get. Should you avoid those places when your state reopens?

In this installment of our series featuring the podcast Pandemic Economics, we’ll look at what businesses are likely to be “super-spreaders” of COVID-19 and how this information can be used to help policymakers decide when businesses get to reopen.

This series is in partnership with the Becker Friedman Institute at the University of Chicago.