By NICHOLAS THOMPSON, Ph.D.
Los Alamos

The Covid-19 coronavirus is an international pandemic. At the current rate, millions of people will get sick and tens of thousands will die, if not more.

As more people get sick, hospitals will become overwhelmed (as we’ve seen in Italy) and the death rate for this and all other diseases will increase due to lack of adequate care.

It’s beyond clear that drastic measures need to be taken. I commend Governor Lujan Grisham for closing schools, but this is not enough. Nationwide, schools, bars, churches, and all non-essential gatherings need to be closed/canceled. As France has done, only essential businesses (grocery stores, pharmacies, medical providers, and banks) should be kept open.

However, taking these drastic steps will put millions of people out of work, and 78 percent of Americans are already living paycheck to paycheck. If these people can’t work, they will lose houses, cars, have their utilities shut off, and not have money to eat. It will exacerbate the crisis because many of them will try to work (potentially infecting themselves and others), or worse, they may resort to crime to support themselves.

In addition to measures to slow and contain the spread of Covid-19, an economic safety net needs to be cast. This includes temporarily banning foreclosures, repossessions, and utility shutoffs, as well as providing a modest temporary income assistance (e.g. $1,000 per month) to sustain people’s livelihoods while they are out of work.

Some of these steps can only be taken at the national level, but many (canceling gatherings, banning foreclosures, repossessions, and utility shutoffs) can be taken at the state and local level.

If we don’t take steps to help ease the economic condition people will be facing, beating the coronavirus will be even harder.

Dr. Nicholas Thompson is a nuclear engineer at Los Alamos National Laboratory.