President Trump signed a $2.2 trillion bill — the largest relief package in history — that hopefully will stabilize our coronavirus-battered economy. However, despite the enormous efforts on both the fiscal and monetary side, these unprecedented steps will not fully restore our economy. To put into perspective, in recent weeks the Federal Reserve has exceeded their financial assistance during the 2008-2009 Great Recession. At 9% of gross domestic product, our fiscal stimulus efforts are larger than the three major packages enacted during that same period.

Nevertheless, this global problem is accelerating and moving faster than the rescue efforts of the Treasury and Federal Reserve. Currently, the U.S. has confirmed more than 100,000 cases. This number has doubled every three days for a month.

A group of nearly 900 economists, including Nobel laureates, urged quick congressional action. They warned: “Businesses that fail during this necessary stoppage time will see the jobs that they provided disappear. With them, much of the production of the economy will be destroyed.”

John Wolfers, a University of Michigan economist, wrote, “The response looks to be proportionate to the extent of the problem. However, we have no idea what the extent of the problem is.”

Stated positively, the new law will provide loans and other disbursements to a wide swath of the economy, including direct payments to Americans and loans to large and small companies. Boosting unemployment insurance is a Godsend.

Mitigating the economic decline depends upon the speed of Washington to deliver checks to cash-strapped households and businesses. Our goal is to encourage companies to keep workers on their payrolls. For workers who lose their jobs, the bill supplies expanded unemployment benefits for up to four months.

The bill also includes a one-time $1,200 payment for each adult — and $500 per child — in households that earn up to $75,000 per year for individuals or $150,000 for couples. The assistance phases out for people who earn more.

Among highlights of the $2.2 trillion package:

• $500 billion: Loans to large businesses

• $377 billion: Loans to small businesses

• $560 billion: Household payments.

• $221 billion: Tax deferrals and extended deadlines

• $339 billion: Aid to states and local governments

• $117 billion: Financial assistance for hospitals and veterans’ health care

• $ 28 billion: Program allocates $25 billion to passenger carriers and $3 billion to airline contractors

• $23.5 billion: Farm aid

• $11 billion: Create vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics and meet other medical needs

Loans to small businesses would be forgiven provided businesses meet certain requirements, including limiting reductions in pay and layoffs.

Borrowers with loans insured by government agencies such as the Federal Housing Administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs would be eligible for forbearance.

Unfortunately, although the coronavirus is invisible, its damages are palpably clear. America has been derelict in preparing for pandemics. Our health care workers do not have enough masks and gloves. We have a shortage of nurses and physicians. We do not have enough ventilators to take care of the people suffering from pneumonia.

It is unbelievable that in February we were celebrating a 50-year low in unemployment and stocks at an all-time high.

One month later we suffer from profound doldrums. The Book “When the Cheering Stopped” highlighted the stunning decline of President Woodrow Wilson after World War I, the same time period as the infamous Spanish Flu.

While we should applaud the bipartisan efforts to pass quickly the $2.2 trillion package, we need to find a cure for the coronavirus to secure lasting benefits.

I read in The New York Times that from coast to coast families have been stringing Christmas lights, blowing up holiday inflatables and building spirit-lifting snowmen to help bring some much-needed cheer during the coronavirus crisis. If Eleanor Roosevelt were with us, she would be stringing up Christmas lights.

Originally published in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune