As long as the COVID-19 pandemic is a threat, the U.S. economy will unduly suffer.
That is unavoidable.
It still is not safe to be in crowded shopping malls, movie theaters and sports arenas.
Help is on the way in terms of vaccines. If enough people get their shots, business should be back to normal by summer.
In the meantime, certain sectors remain in a world of hurt and six more months of partial lock-down could be their breaking point.
This should not be an either/or decision for Americans. Especially as more contagious variants of COVID are making their way here, we should not be debating whether to risk our health for the welfare of our local economies.
The message from Congress should be for Americans to continue living as much of a sheltered life as possible while the federal government props up the economy until it’s safe to resume life as normal.
This is why President Joe Biden is calling for a massive rescue package. The terminology alone signifies its import.
What the country is experiencing should be viewed in terms of a natural disaster — not some term that hints at a man-made crisis.
With more than 425,000 deaths to the virus, the country is on track to lose 500,000 lives before the vaccines begin to make a marked difference.
Critical to Biden’s package is $400 billion that should have been approved six months or more ago for vaccinations, public health workers to administer the shots, the retrofitting of schools so that they have proper ventilation, and workers to track the virus’s path among populations.
Simply put, Congress has dropped the ball in dealing with the pandemic.
THE PANDEMIC’S blow to the economy early last spring ended the longest U.S. economic expansion on record — nearly 11 years. For 2020, the U.S. economy shrank 3.5%, the largest contraction since World War II.
Still today, more than 10 million remain out of work. The outlook for the 2021 economy remains hazy. 
Hiring has lagged for the last six months and employers shed jobs in December for the first time since April. Economists warn that a sustained recovery won’t likely take hold until vaccines are administered nationwide and government-enacted rescue aid spreads through the economy — a process likely to take months.
Which is why Biden is keen to go big.
He knows that to avoid another recession, the government needs to fill the gaps.
Key to the rescue package is $400 in weekly emergency jobless benefits, up from the $300 approved in December.
