Vials with samples taken for the new coronavirus are seen before they are prepared for RNA testing at the molecular pathology lab at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans.

Vials with samples taken for the new coronavirus are seen before they are prepared for RNA testing at the molecular pathology lab at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans. Gerald Herbert/AP

Viewpoint: Treat It and Beat It

The federal government has a unique role to play in enabling rapid progress toward drugs to improve COVID-19 recovery and survival rates.

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 to living with the virus. And the difference that having a drug available this summer rather than next year could make, in the lives of patients and the health of our economy, would be beyond measure.

An appropriate sense of urgency in Washington could help make that difference. America’s extraordinary biomedical-research sector is unmatched in the world, which means that any treatment is most likely to come from the United States. The federal government will need to both clear the way and pave a path for that effort, but there has been is a marked lack of urgency on this front.

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