With so many small businesses now in danger of closing, Congress should offer tax benefits or other relief to help them defray the costs of taking protective measures. It should also amend health-privacy laws that might prohibit employers from verifying if workers had been infected, assessing whether they’re at elevated risk on the job, or tracing their contacts within the workplace. Those laws, though well-intentioned, are now potentially quite dangerous.
Until a vaccine is discovered, produced and available to all, these kinds of common sense measures will be necessary to protect American workers — and to help American businesses survive, hire employees and get our economy moving again.
Michael R. Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City and a Global Ambassador for the World Health Organization, is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.