So yesterday, I spoke at a roundtable hosted by the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs committee, at which I talked about how we can reopen the economy even if we can't develop an effective treatment or vaccine, using traffic fatalities as a paradigm. I said:

"Traffic fatalities is a good mental framework for thinking about how to live with COVID-19. Instead of abolishing cars, we enforce traffic laws & speed limits, and prohibit drunk driving. We set a minimum standard for car safety. But, most of all..."

"...we expect individual drivers to be responsible for their own conduct. Something similar can work for COVID-19. Businesses can deep-clean their surfaces & provide hand sanitizer and masks to their workers & customers. People can wash their hands regularly, & minimize..."

"...close contact with strangers. This is, in fact, what East Asian countries did after the original SARS outbreak in 2003, and it enabled them to gradually return to normal life, despite the absence of a vaccine or effective treatments." Full remarks: https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Testimony-Roy-2020-05-06.pdf

The point of these remarks (and my overall testimony) was to highlight the need to develop a coherent, evidence-based strategy to reopen the economy even if #COVID19 endures (a.k.a. the @FREOPP plan: https://freopp.org/a-new-strategy-for-bringing-people-back-to-work-during-covid-19-a912247f1ab5?source=collection_home---1------0-----------------------)

I go through all of this because a drive-by report from @YahooNews described my remarks this way: "Testifying at a Senate hearing on the coronavirus pandemic...conservative economist Avik Roy deployed one of President Trump’s favorite metaphors for discussing the outbreak."