EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE YOU GET SOMETHING USEFUL FROM THE NYT’S HOUSE CONSERVATIVES: Covid-19 and the Big Government Problem: What happens when bureaucratic dead weight meets a horseman of the apocalypse?

From 2007 to 2019, the total number of employees in the Food and Drug Administration increased by nearly 80 percent to more than 17,000 employees, according to a Cato Institute report. That includes nearly 500 additional workers to review the safety of medical devices.

Has it helped? In March, Julia Ioffe wrote a must-read account in GQ of the F.D.A.’s almost-comical mishandling of an effort to roll out coronavirus test kits. First the F.D.A. approved a flawed test. Then they stymied an effective test by requiring its developer to submit his request not only electronically but also mailed in paper and via thumb drive. Then the F.D.A. demanded that the developer see if his test worked against other coronaviruses. Then the F.D.A. shut down a testing regime developed by the Seattle Flu Study because it lacked the correct licensing requirements.

And yet some idiots are blaming these problems on “small government” ideology. If only! Plus: “It says something that among the most important steps taken in recent months to advance public safety has been to waive regulations enacted in the name of public safety.”

Related: The CDC was Fighting Racism and Obesity Instead of Stopping Epidemics.

Flashback: You had one job, CDC.