In January 2020, University of Washington epidemiologists were hot on the trail of COVID-19. Virologist Alex Greninger had begun developing a test soon after Chinese officials published the viral genome. But he needed Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to deploy his test in-house. Greninger spent 100 hours filling out an application for an FDA “emergency use authorization” (EUA). He submitted the application by email. Then he was told that the application was not complete until he mailed a hard copy to the FDA Document Control Center. After a few more days, FDA officials told Greninger that they would not approve his EUA until he verified that his test did not cross-react with other viruses in his lab, and until he also agreed to test for MERS and SARS. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) then refused to release samples of SARS to Greninger because it is too virulent. Greninger finally got a sample of coronavirus that satisfied the FDA. By the time it arrived and his tests began in early March, the outbreak was well on its way.

Modern government has a major flaw. It is structured to preempt the active intelligence of people on the ground. This is not an unavoidable side-effect of big government, but a deliberate precept of its operating philosophy. Law will not only set goals and governing principles, but it will also dictate exactly how to implement those goals correctly. The tools are familiar: volumes of detailed rules, mandatory procedural paths prior to approvals, and—when there is disagreement—adversarial proceedings aimed at discovering objective truths.

The effect is a kind of paralysis—specifically, an institutional inability to act in a timely and appropriate way in the particular situation. The complex shapes of life rarely fit neatly into legal categories Decisions slow to a snail’s pace as people are diverted towards compliance and anxiety about the legal correctness of choices. As a result, things do not work as they should in schools, in hospitals, in workplaces, on playgrounds, and especially, within the government itself. Permits for needed infrastructure can take upwards of a decade.3 People cannot grab hold of problems and solve them.

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