The issue with summer camps probably isn't mostly the residential, "kids gone for two weeks" camps - it's the day camps that substitute for schools as the summer "day care" while all adults in the household go to work.
We've never seriously addressed child care for families with all adults working as a societal issue in the United States. The options that exist are ad hoc, driven in many cases by for-profit interests, etc. As a result, since we have no national policy, no national norm, when we get into a situation like the current one, there's no response, really - how do you have a coherent policy response when there's no underlying policy?
But the reality is, if we don't have schools open and summer "camp" alternatives to school, then a lot of adults cannot go back to work - they have to watch the kids. If they child caregivers can't go back to work, then family consumption will not rebound to where it was - and our economy is driven by consumption.
We may (many of us will ) discover that we can permanently reduce our levels of consumption, and not suffer much, if at all. Just as a (rather trivial) example, our family has traditionally gone out to lunch after Sunday Mass - a weekly restaurant tab of anywhere from $50 to $100. Haven't done that in about six weeks now; and the thing is, we don't miss it much. We've taken to preparing a Sunday brunch - cooking things we haven't cooked in years... and spending maybe $10/week on the foods involved. We're probably not going back - certainly not until the CV threat is basically gone. It's a little thing, but real. Others may discover that there are benefits to cooking more, eating together more, and visiting restaurants/fast food joints much less. It's healthier (even apart from the CV risk), it costs much less... the only thing required is some time commitment.
