WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care, convened a virtual roundtable Wednesday focusing on the issue of safely reopening the American economy.

“Massive government spending is no substitute for an economy. In fact, all of government necessarily depends on having an economy,” said Toomey during the virtual roundtable. “And so, endless government spending is just not sustainable. And that brings us to why we’re here today. The purpose of this roundtable is to discuss the importance of, and strategies for, reopening the American economy in a gradual, safe manner that emphasizes protection for the truly vulnerable populations.”

Toomey was joined by his colleagues Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio.

An expert panel provided opinions and answered questions from the senators. Members of that panel were:

John P.A. Ioannidis, MD, C.F. Rehnborg Chair in Disease Prevention, Professor of Medicine, of Epidemiology and Population Health, and (by courtesy) of Biomedical Data Science, and of Statistics at Stanford Prevention Research Center; co-Director, Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS).

· Mark McClellan, MD, PhD, Robert J. Margolis Professor of Business, Medicine, and Policy, founding Director of the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy at Duke University

· Paul Romer, PhD, Professor of Economics, New York University

· Steven D. Shapiro, MD, Executive Vice President, Chief Medical and Scientific Officer, and President of the Health Services Division, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.