Treat It and Beat It

We are only now entering the most intense and painful phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in America. As the strain on our health system worsens, it’s essential that we not let up on the social distancing and other mitigation efforts we’re engaged in. And it’s essential, too, for our public officials to plan the gradual and regionally tailored return to normality that will need to follow this period. A hard pause and then a soft start must be our strategy.

And yet at the same time, our government needs to be directing resources and coordinating efforts on the medical-research front. A vaccine is a ways off, but effective treatments need not be. Drugs that help give those with the most acute cases of COVID-19 a much better chance of recovering would be transformative in our fight against the pandemic. They could completely change our approach