The majority of the public seems to be operating on the belief that the COVID-19 is "going away" soon and life will go back to normal. Why this notion is popular probably has a lot to do with political and media rhetoric in both China and the US. Early on, Trump maintained that the virus was a non-issue, creating an air of complacency with many Americans. Both the media and Trump seem to be consistently rotating a few distracting catch phrases about wearing masks or "flattening the curve" with target dates to "reopen" the economy.
The fact is, there is no official strategy for reopening the economy, and no one knows how the curve looks on the down slope in the US - it could be a long, gradual slope, meaning that the virus may linger for quite some time, especially because of the disorganized and staggered approach to lockdowns across the 50 states.
With new evidence surfacing in China that the virus has not actually been contained and may even be reemerging in areas, as well as experts predicting a new wave of the virus arriving in the fall season, most signs show that lockdown restrictions will have to carry on much further into 2020. Many experts are pointing out that, without an actual vaccine, which could take multiple years to manufacture and distribute (legally speaking, the best-case scenario is 12-18 months due to necessary animal and human trials), consumer confidence will not return and lockdowns will likely continue as governments struggle to fully eradicate the virus.
The St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank released projections estimating that 52.8 million Americans could be jobless by the end of Q2. Percentage-wise, this is drastically higher than the unemployment rate during the peak of the 1930's Great Depression. Roughly 50% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. With...
a) this level of unemployment and reduced consumer confidence, combined with
b) multiple failing industries due to a prolonged economic shutdown forced by repeated/extended lockdowns along with
c) a federal government that employs a leadership style based on obfuscating accountability,
...the US may experience the ideal preconditions for economic collapse. For example, if at the same time, the restaurant, tourism, airline, and hotel industries all collapse, a ripple effect will likely occur causing their suppliers to default over the following months. In a matter of time, the global food supply chain may become threatened leading to civil unrest (which is common in these types of conditions - e.g. see the social unrest brewing in Italy now).
The market will reflect this outlook once the national rhetoric is updated to include the upcoming mixture of the above forecasted events - which is likely to be reported over the next 60 days along with corporate earnings calls and unemployment claims.