The Food and Drug Administration, along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, failed America with its coronavirus response. The CDC bears enormous fault for violating its own manufacturing standards and then distributing a faulty test — one that had been contaminated with the coronavirus—to labs throughout the country. In addition, FDA decisions in February and March hampered and delayed development of tests for the virus and the production of protective equipment.

While these failures are extremely visible and have caused needless deaths, the agency’s regulatory approach has led to less visible mistakes for decades. A silver lining from this crisis is that the FDA’s failures can and should lead to an overhaul of the agency and a reduction in the significant, but often hidden, harm it causes.