Nobel Prize-winning Ecocomist 64-year-old Paul Romer thinks the government should spend $100 billion out of the $2.2 CARES Act to test every man, woman and child in the United States for coronvirus AKA SARS CoV-2 or Covid-19. Romer co-won the Nobel Prize in economics with William Nordhaus for showing “how knowledge can function as a driver for long-term economic growth.” Romer should take some of his advice or “knowledge” about epidemiology to stay out of his lane, not urge the government to waste $100 billion of cash on testing, when there are much greater priorities for the cash. Romer knows little about infectious disease, certainly not enough other that what he sees on TV or reads in the paper. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] should spend no more on testing than what’s dictated by patients’ symptoms and need for treatment.
Romer echoes the sentiment of 64-year-old billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates who also insists that everyone should get PCR [Polymerase Chain Reaction] testing, the type that Abbott Laboratories developed to swap someone’s cheek to get results in five minutes. Gates knows that producing Abbott’s point-of-care molecular assay machines are prohibitively expensive for the entire country, costing far more that the entire $2.2 trillion CARES act budget. Yet Romer thinks nothing as an economist of urging the government to spend $100 billion on testing, when patients presenting with serious symptoms only require testing to confirm a diagnosis for whatever draconic treatments are needed. But for the fast majority of Covid-19 patients, they require no testing or treatment at all to get over symptoms. Up to 50% of Covid-19 patients have no symptoms at all, so-called aymptomatic cases.
While it’s great that Romer won the Nobel Prize in 2018, it’s not great that he was forced out of the World Bank for controversial statements about Chile’s credit rating getting downgraded because of Socialist President Micelle Bachelet. Romer was forced to take a “leave of absence” from the World Bank Jan. 24, 2018. Whatever happened there, he’s making equally controversial statements how CARES Act money should be spent on testing. “It’s totally in our control to fix this,” Romer told the Washington Post. “We should be spending $100 billion on the testing. We should just get it going. It’s just not that hard,” showing that Romer doesn’t have a clue about the necessity of testing all 328.2 million Americans. Romer’s proposal is so costly, so unwieldly, but, most importantly, so unnecessary. Growing number of U.S. citizens have gotten over the coronavirus without any testing.
Romer doesn’t say why he thinks it’s so essential to spend $100 billion on testing the entire U.S. population. He’s of the view, like Gates, that somehow testing makes difference in terms of controlling the SARS CoV-2 epidemic in the U.S. With trends lines about the incidence of coronavirus cases, new cases, hospitalizations and deaths dropping, it’s a matter of time before epidemic peters out. Whether there’s new cases during flu season or not, the current episode of Covid-19 has begun to diminish, prompting many governors around the country to reopen economies. Romer talks about the need for more testing but what he should be talking about, as New York University Stern School professor, is the devastating effect of “shelter in place” orders on the U.S. economy. Romer doesn’t need a Nobel Prize to talk about how the month-long economic shutdown as plunged the U.S. economy into a Great Recession.
Asking Romer to opine about testing shows the kind of desperation in the U.S. press to advance any coronvirus agenda opposed to 73-year-old President Donald Trump. It’s not hard to figure out that Romer’s no fan of Trump, adopting Democrat talking points that Trump’s coronavirus task force has mismanaged the crisis. Because Trump wants to open up the country, the press wants to keep it shut, no matter what the damage to the U.S. economy. But beyond what the shutdown does to the economy, decimation of the U.S. consumer is unmistakable. While Wall Street plays its own games recently rallying for no real reason, cities, counties and states are rapidly running out of cash. No matter how much the government tries to bail out businesses or individuals, citizens have a right to earn a living, regardless of any infectious disease crisis. Romer’s plan to spend $100 billion on testing throws good money after bad.
What possible reason does Romer think that testing more citizens will slow an epidemic already peaked and now heading down on its own? With up to 50% of coronavirus cases without symptoms, there’s simply not enough serious cases per capital to justify keeping the country shut down. Romer’s idea of testing every man, woman and child is the country is a colossal boongoggle that does nothing to end the SARS CoV-2 epidemic that has today 1,036,7766 cases and 59,266 deaths. Whatever the mortality rate ends up, spending $100 billion on testing won’t save one life or shorten the duration of the nationwide epidemic. Romer wouldn’t ask the government to spend $100 billion on the seasonal flu, nor should he for Covid-19. Epidemics all run their course in due time with or without mitigation efforts. More testing won’t save vulnerable populations, like the elderly, from getting infected.
