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Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, with a deep economic downturn looking possible, President George W. Bush asked Americans to do their part to help the airline industry. “Get down to Disney World in Florida,” Bush said. “Take your families and enjoy life, the way we want it to be enjoyed.”

That kind of advice obviously wouldn’t work today. The only way to reduce the spread of the coronavirus is for people to stop going to restaurants, schools, offices and, yes, Disney World. (If anything, Disney damaged public health by hosting a packed farewell party at the Magic Kingdom on Sunday night.)

Yet the federal government clearly needs to take some action to help the economy. A recession has already begun, in all likelihood, and it could be a deep one. Initial forecasts suggest the economy could shrink at an annual rate of 5 percent or even 10 percent in the second quarter of this year, which starts in about two weeks. By comparison, the decline during the worst quarter of the 2008 financial crisis was 8.4 percent.