The coronavirus testing news we've been salivating for

[Bloomberg]( Follow Us //link.mail.bloombergbusiness.com/click/21254233.51675/aHR0cHM6Ly90d2l0dGVyLmNvbS9ib3Bpbmlvbg/582c8673566a94262a8b49bdBb99617eb This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a spit test of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - A new coronavirus [spit test could be a game-changer](. - Trump’s [Goodyear attack is self-defeating](. - No, Russiagate [wasn’t a waste of time](. - The market just [keeps getting more expensive](. Virus Breakthrough Now Within Spitting Distance Ever since this horrible stupid pandemic began, it’s been clear testing was the key to stopping it. Way back in March, the WHO’s director-general [said]( fighting the disease without testing was like trying to “fight a fire blindfolded.” Unlike some other countries that tested aggressively from the start, the U.S. has been [wearing blinders]( for months. Finally, there’s some hope they may come off soon. The FDA just approved a thing called SalivaDirect, which sounds like the world’s worst delivery service but is in fact a cheap, easy, spit-based test for SARS-CoV-2. Its developers are giving the method away to labs, which Max Nisen writes will make it widely available in a hurry. It [addresses key problems the U.S. has had with testing](, from supply shortages to long delays getting results. We’ll need more breakthroughs like this to really turn the tide, Max notes, but this is a good start. Mass testing does not magically make the disease appear, as certain presidents of the United States suggest. It does help track and isolate the disease to stop its spread. And the sooner the better, obviously. Testing and tracing could even help us properly reopen schools, which Cathy O’Neil notes are [suffering disastrous reopenings due to poor planning]( from [Georgia]( to [North Carolina]( to [Notre Dame](. Even if and when we get the virus largely under control, Tyler Cowen writes, some amount of [lingering anxiety will weigh on the economy for a long time]( after. But maybe we could avoid a lot of that fear if we weren’t so much in the dark. Further Virus-Control Reading: Joe Biden’s [mask mandate idea goes too far]( by making people wear them outside. — Faye Flam What a Tire Fire By now the spectacle of President Donald Trump attacking an American company over some slight or other is so familiar as to basically be unworthy of comment. It’s like gnats at a picnic; you just wave them away and keep cutting up the watermelon. But today’s Twitter [broadside]( against Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. really stands out, Brooke Sutherland writes. Goodyear allegedly had the gall to tell workers not to wear MAGA hats on the job, so Trump now wants people to buy tires from its competitors. (It apparently banned Joe Biden paraphernalia too, but who’s counting?) As Brooke notes, [Goodyear’s biggest competitors are all foreign](, in countries Trump has been trade-warring with for years. Goodyear is also a major employer in the key Electoral College prize of Ohio. You see where this is going. This whole affair exemplifies not only the fine line companies must walk to satisfy all constituents these days, but also the president’s superhuman ability to cut off his nose to spite his face. A Senate Reminder the Election Is Under Attack For years, Trump has dismissed the investigation of his 2016 campaign’s ties to Russia as a hoax and a witch hunt. Just in time for the 2020 election, the Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Republicans, yesterday confirmed [we really weren’t wasting all those years caring about Russiagate](, writes Tim O’Brien. Russia really did try to undermine the election to help Trump, and he and his allies really were eager for the help. Maybe [the FBI mishandled the probe](, as Eli Lake suggests. But the threat of foreign interference in American democracy is still as imminent as it was in 2016. Cass Sunstein suggests we need an [independent commission dedicated to protecting elections](, similar to those dedicated to protecting consumers. We’ve had more than enough -gates already. Markets Stop Making Sense The stock market being at record highs during a pandemic/recession is a big generator of not only wealth but also strong feelings. It is infuriatingly nonsensical from, like, a human-being perspective to see stocks soaring while so many people suffer. But in other ways it actually makes a lot of sense. Because driving the rally are the big-cap tech stocks that naturally thrive in a pandemic, writes John Authers. Apple hitting $2 trillion in valuation sounds crazy, until you remember you and your whole family have done little but stare at Apple devices for the past six months. Still, [the market is now wildly expensive]( in terms of historical valuation. Getting [Apple to $3 trillion will take some doing](, writes Tae Kim. And at least some of the S&P 500’s record run is driven by belief the [economic recovery can continue without more stimulus](, writes Shuli Ren. We may soon learn the truth of that belief the hard way. Telltale Charts Many of us may see colleges as giant vacuums into which we throw ever-rising sums of tuition money. But the cost of college actually has been pretty static for most students for the past 20 years, writes Noah Smith. So strapped colleges will [increasingly turn to admitting wealthy legacy students]( to help pay the bills. Target is absolutely crushing it in the pandemic, but Sarah Halzack writes that’s because [it spent years preparing for this day](, by working on its online and curbside-pickup game. Further Reading While taking care not to trigger Vladimir Putin, Europe and the U.S. should [support Belarus’s demonstrators](. — Bloomberg’s editorial board Yes, Citigroup has a point that the people it accidentally gave $900 million shouldn’t be allowed to keep it, but it also [must face consequences for having such poor controls](. — Chris Hughes Kroll’s generous bond rating of New York’s [MTA helped it borrow from the Fed]( more cheaply. — Brian Chappatta VW, GM and other legacy automakers have [gotten pretty good at making electric cars](, but don’t get Tesla-like credit for it. Maybe spinoffs would change that. — Chris Bryant This isn’t [America’s first coin shortage](. — Stephen Mihm ICYMI Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy is [possibly ill with coronavirus](. Venturing out of Silicon Valley [could be good for tech](. Finnish researchers may have [found a hangover cure](. Kickers We may soon have those [cyborg bomb-sniffing locusts]( you were asking about. (h/t Mike Smedley) Earth’s [magnetic field is doing weird stuff](. (h/t Alistair Lowe) An asteroid [just missed hitting Earth](, sadly. The [fight over baseball’s unwritten rules]( is already over. Note: Please send bomb-sniffing locusts and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Twitter]( and [Facebook](.  Stay on your game | Get unparalleled access to two world-class news desks, covering developments across finance, economics, technology and sports. [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com today]( and get complimentary access to The Athletic. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](.  You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Bloomberg Opinion Today newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022