Policymakers need to maintain a longer-term perspective, as they fight minute by minute to stop the deadly spread of COVID-19, to save American lives, and to keep the economy afloat until Americans can safely return to work. Restoring and maintaining the public health in the here-and-now is of utmost importance and the first critical step to reopening the economy.
But they must also prepare for the health care demands of workers and citizens in an economy that is safely reopening. The post COVID-19 health care system will urgently need restructuring and rebuilding to ensure that we will respond better should we ever again face such a dangerous pathogen.
Immediately, our heroic health care workers, first responders and essential workers urgently require personal protective equipment (PPE), and ventilators for those who are seriously ill. To vanquish the virus now, and to reopen the economy safely and keep it open down the road, we need massively increased availability of testing. We must move beyond scrambling to test the symptomatic to extended testing to find the asymptomatic infected, and to identify the recovered who carry antibodies and are no longer infecting others. Once we can identify the safe, we can begin to restore business activity.
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