In his interview with Chris Ryan, Representative Chris Pappas from New Hampshire’s First Congressional District discussed the COVID-19 virus from two perspectives: 1) How our healthcare system can deal with the pandemic; 2) How our economy can recover from the damage caused by so many businesses being closed to control the spread of the virus.
After having conversations with local hospitals, medical providers, and officials on the state and federal level, Congressman Pappas is concerned about having enough PPE, Personal Protection Equipment and increasing testing capabilities. He acknowledged the work of the National Guard in providing additional hospital facilities.
However, the Congressman calls for the federal government to do all that it can to open the supply chain for needed supplies. For instance, he has called for the president to implement the Defense Production Act from the outset of preparing for this pandemic. He believes that the problems with getting private sector companies like 3M to supply enough masks and states outbidding each other for supplies would have been eliminated.
Congressman Pappas discussed the critical need for increased testing capacity. Currently, we can only test “The sickest of the sick”. Going forward, we need to test more people and get results more quickly. Healthcare workers in hospitals and nursing homes who may have been exposed need to have testing available on a consistent basis. The expected surge in COVID-19 cases, which is anticipated in the coming weeks, makes the need for more supplies and increased testing capacity vitally important.
The second part of the interview dealt with the economic impact of COVID-19. The Congressman is hopeful that the recently passed $ 2.2 trillion CARES Act or Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act will provide bridge loans for people and businesses to get over this economic emergency.
Congressman Pappas cited this important statistic, “Over 57,000 individuals in New Hampshire for unemployment benefits.” Many more people are trying to get through the system, which is overwhelmed right now. The CARES Act will provide $600 per week in addition to the unemployment benefits.
As a co-owner of the popular Manchester, NH restaurant The Puritan Backroom, Chris Pappas has a deep understanding of how small businesses and the restaurant and hospitality industry is being affected by measures taken to limit the spread of COVID-19. The Congressman pointed out that usually small businesses don’t have large cash reserves or insurance for a situation like this. Their goal should be to limit their debts as much as possible. He suggested several items in the CARES Act which are designed to help small businesses to survive this loss of income.
Congressman Pappas hopes that as the CARES Act is being implemented, it will be fine tuned as problems develop. In the final analysis, $2.2 trillion might not be enough, when you consider that nationally $25 billion was lost in the first to weeks of March.
Apparently, Republicans and Democrats both see how seriously how economy has been damaged.
“There is a willingness in Washington on both sides of the aisle to revisit and expand the amount of money being pushed out to the states and local governments if these problems last longer than what was originally projected.”
In conclusion, Congressman Pappas believes that our economy has been totally destroyed by this pandemic; but we can’t get our economy back on its feet, if we don’t first beat this virus.
