I think the main problem is that there are simple ways to reduce the chances of virus spreading, but people ignore them - the only tool you have left in your tool belt is to shut things down. At this point, opening things up won't change much in my opinion - folks that want to stay at home will stay at home, limit their spendings (no restaurants, entertainment, etc), won't travel, and wait it out till the vaccine is ready. At least I know I will.
A blanket shutdown of businesses in California is/was a bad idea. The people who want to be irresponsible will get the virus, even the CDC acknowledges that it primarily spreads via close person-to-person contact. So we have a situation where businesses are closing at an apocalyptic rate leading to a huge drop in the tax base for the state, the virus is still spreading rapidly amongst those who do not take it seriously and we(who are responsible) still suffer. Counter that in we have open businesses that see a drop in customers but these businesses see some revenue(all the while maintaining social distancing and requirement of masks inside).
My point is mostly that even if you do open everything up, that won't convince everyone to start going out and spending again. After seeing what's happening around mandatory masks ("muh freedoms!"), I don't trust my fellow members of the society to do the right thing. At this point I don't care if you open up or not, I can hunker down a few more months, & I expect I'm not the only one thinking along those lines. The only problem to me is that when you open up, you are forcing people to choose between losing their job or potentially getting sick.
