Over the past month, the news has been dominated by the rapid spread of the coronavirus. People have become used to graphs with lines pointing upward and reports of tens of thousands of deaths. Even as the human tragedy becomes more apparent each day, there are signs of hope that the number of new cases has started to decline. If that trend continues, the public will focus increasingly on a different type of virus — economic contagion.

As public anxiety over the virus grew, and governments ratcheted up restrictions to contain its spread, the previously strong economy collapsed more suddenly than ever before in our national history. On Thursday, another 5.2 million people filed unemployment claims, making a total of 22 million in just the past month. By comparison, in March 2009, the worst month of the Great Recession, 2.6 million people filed. That’s fewer than half what we’re experiencing now.