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Ironically, the coronavirus pandemic is one of the major issues of the 2020 election, and yet it is the very same issue that may keep millions of Americans from being able to vote in what may be the most important election in over 50 years. As Democratic nominee Joe Biden said, “This election is about the soul of the nation.” Joe Biden told us the election was a ‘battle for the soul of the nation.’ He was right. While some states are making voting by mail easier during the pandemic, politics and the not-so-hidden desire for voter suppression means that many other states will not adopt policies that permit easy voting by mail. Consequently, two questions become important: How safe is in-person voting? Can it be made safe enough? (Ezekiel Emanuel, James Phillips, and Saskia Popescu, 9/21)

The pandemic has exposed a disorganized, inefficient and dangerous system of long-term care for older adults in the United States: Those 65 and older account for 80 percent of the deaths caused by covid-19. ... The persistence of several myths has hampered efforts to reform the troubled long-term-care system. (Howard Gleckman, 9/17)

I believe Congress must take an aggressive approach to fixing the nation’s broken prescription drug market. It is opaque and complex. There’s nothing free market about it, except that drugmakers are free to set whatever prices they want. The market is dependent on things like government-sanctioned rebates and monopolies created by Food and Drug Administration exclusivities and patent abuse. For example, pharmacy benefit managers have perverse incentives to increase their own profits at the expense of patients by paying rebates to drugmakers in exchange for preferred status on insurer’s health plan formularies. (Mike Braun, 9/19)

A few months ago, one of us (S.B.) found himself staring up into the bright lights of an operating room. He wasn’t sick or injured — far from it. Instead, he was about to undergo surgery to donate a kidney to a stranger. Why? He knew it could save the life of someone who would otherwise die. He recognized his choice carried the risks and costs, including a 3 in 10,000 risk of dying and slightly increased long-term odds of developing kidney disease. In the last decade, nearly 2,000 other Americans have made the same choice, believing these risks are worth the benefits. (Sam Beyda and Abigail Marsh, 9/22)

High U.S. tariffs on consumer goods, industrial supplies and medical products threaten to stifle the economic recovery and hinder the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Once the election season is behind us, the next administration and Congress must work together for the national interest to unilaterally eliminate self-damaging tariffs, independent of the path other nations choose to follow. (Daniel Griswold, 9/21)

Firestorms in the West have grown bigger and more destructive in recent years — and harder to escape. Massive and frenzied, they have overtaken people trying to outrun or outdrive them. Gridlocked mountain roads prevented many Paradise residents from fleeing the Camp fire, which killed 85 people in 2018. This year, more than 30 people have died in the fires in California and Oregon, and again, in many cases, people were trying to escape fast-moving blazes. (9/22)