MAKE AMERICA THE MEDICINE CHEST OF THE WORLD.
America’s “arsenal of democracy” saved Europe and the world from fascism during World War II. Today the U.S. can win a similar victory over the novel coronavirus by sticking to the same principles that made the war effort so successful. President Trump took a vital step in that direction Wednesday by invoking the Defense Production Act, which gives him the authority to expedite and expand industrial production of key medical resources necessary to fight the pandemic.
America’s productivity in World War II wasn’t the result of bureaucrats in Washington exercising command and control over the U.S. economy, as some seem to think the Covid-19 pandemic requires. On the contrary, the federal government harnessed the energy and innovation of America’s finest companies to produce what government could not: materials and supplies in sufficient quantities to prevail in two theaters of war on opposite sides of the globe. . . .
By invoking the Defense Production Act, the administration can clear away bureaucratic impediments to an effective pandemic response. Just as FDR’s administration temporarily set aside antitrust standards so companies could band together to produce everything from aircraft parts to tanks and synthetic fuels, the Trump administration can encourage companies to pool their patents and intellectual property to increase production of key drugs and technologies.
Bringing together companies like Walgreens, Walmart and Google to streamline the Covid-19 testing process was a good first step toward making America safer and more secure against the growing pandemic. But there is much more the U.S. can do to mobilize its health-industrial and manufacturing base. It’s absurd that Italy must rely on China for emergency supplies of ventilators when America is home to major ventilator manufacturers like Vyaire, ResMed and Allied Healthcare Products. The Trump administration should work out a timeline with these medical-device makers to produce all the ventilators the world needs right here in the U.S. The same is true for respirators, swabs and other types of protective gear crucial to preventing a global health-care catastrophe.
Washington should also clear the way for the American pharmaceutical industry to develop and deploy therapies for Covid-19 until antiviral drugs, and ultimately a vaccine, are in place. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals of Tarrytown, N.Y., which developed a drug last year to combat Ebola, announced Tuesday it has made progress in the hunt for a Covid-19 treatment. Swift action by the Food and Drug Administration has already streamlined the approval process so that what might normally take two to three years will now happen in a matter of weeks.
Bureaucracy kills.