One might expect that front-line workers would be less keen to move to Austin and Miami, but I have not seen data to that effect and I am not convinced that is true on net.  I genuinely would like to know, and in the meantime am agnostic on the question. I don’t see many people moving into Vermont or San Francisco, two locales that have done a good job minimizing Covid risk. Analytically, you might put it this way.  There always have been positive externalities from human contact through commerce, and at the margin, even with Covid risk, for many people those externalities still are positive.  Thus if you limit or tax those interactions, the policies will be unpopular.

One might expect that front-line workers would be less keen to move to Austin and Miami, but I have not seen data to that effect and I am not convinced that is true on net.  I genuinely would like to know, and in the meantime am agnostic on the question. I don’t see many people moving into Vermont or San Francisco, two locales that have done a good job minimizing Covid risk. Analytically, you might put it this way.  There always have been positive externalities from human contact through commerce, and at the margin, even with Covid risk, for many people those externalities still are positive.  Thus if you limit or tax those interactions, the policies will be unpopular.