On January 19, 2020, an urgent-care clinic inWashington State reported the first confirmed case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the United States (Holshue et al. 2020). COVID-19 infections from travel and community spread quickly spread throughout the country (WorldHealthOrganization 2020). By early May, Johns Hopkins University and the Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center (2020) estimated that more than 1,735,000 U.S. citizens had contracted COVID-19, resulting in approximately 103,000 fatalities. Both figures constituted the most cases and fatalities of any nation affected by the virus (Gupta et al. 2020).

Raymond J. March is a Research Fellow and Director of FDAReview.org at the Independent Institute, and an assistant professor of economics at North Dakota State University.
COVID-19FDA and Drug RegulationHealth and Healthcare