Michael R. Strain, Columnist

Congress’s Next Rescue Bill Should Start With Public Health

There won’t be an economic recovery without big investments in virus testing and tracking.

April 8, 2020 at 10:00 PM UTC

Michael R. Strain is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is director of economic policy studies and Arthur F. Burns Scholar in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute. He is the author of “The American Dream Is Not Dead: (But Populism Could Kill It).”

Unemployment forms at a drive-thru collection point in Florida.
Photographer: Chandan Khanna/ AFP/Getty Images

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

No sooner did the $2 trillion “Phase 3” economic recovery package leave the Capitol Hill runway than Congress started planning a full Phase 4 bill to pass later this month or in early May, along with a smaller interim measure the Senate hopes to pass on Thursday. In the rush to give people and the economy additional support, what should the priorities be?

Any sound economic recovery package has to begin with public health. Congress should build an adequate Covid-19 testing regime, capable of testing not only everyone with symptoms, but also random samples of individuals who paint statistically valid pictures of large regions of the country. That will give policymakers and the public a more complete understanding of how the virus has spread. In addition, Congress should ensure that a disease surveillance system is in place that can rapidly isolate people who test positive for coronavirus, as well as identify their close contacts.