Our country’s faltering early response to COVID-19 quickly exposed a number of dysfunctions and rigidities in the American regulatory state, thereby creating openings for larger structural reforms that go beyond the current short-term waivers. First, the delayed rollout of testing, and shortages of PPE and ventilators, highlight larger problems with the FDA’s highly risk-averse and slow-walk-everything institutional culture. In addition, various problems with the state licensing of healthcare workers have cropped up. State-based licensing has created obstacles to both telemedicine, and the ability to move healthcare workers across state lines to where the outbreak is most severe. Moreover, the scope of practice restrictions on nurse practitioners and physician assistants reduce the availability of primary care options at a time when all resources are under heavy strain. Niskanen’s Vice President Brink Lindsey and regulatory policy fellow Daniel Takash will discuss these and other issues and the prospects for constructive policy change in the wake of the crisis.