Pandemic Upsides
Sheltering in place is a pain, but there some upsides worth your consideration. Think of how much worse it would be without your smart phone, Netflix, Zoom, Instacart, drivethru at In-N-Out, and stupid stuff on YouTube. This would have been a much bigger pain 10 years ago.
On a much more serious note, we have received a timely warning. Plagues have been around ever since there were cities. The first one for which we have coherent and reliable evidence took place in Athens about 2,400 years ago. Not wishing to in any way to minimize the tragic loss of life in the last few months, or overlook the heroic efforts of health care professionals around the world, it is necessary to say we are getting off easy. This disease has a relatively low mortality rate compared to many past epidemics.
We now have a chance to practice coping with something more deadly. Scientists around the world are racing to find treatments and vaccines and streamlining the verification of efficacy process in a radical fashion. Our response to the next epidemic should be more timely and more effective as a result. Hopefully, the scientific and political communities will conduct an effective postmortem to draw the right lessons from the response of various countries around the world. We can only hope that the political process will not be poisoned by partisanship.
We also have another lesson in the fragility and interconnectedness of the modern economy. Lots of adjustments to business plans are being made on the fly. Hopefully, the various players in the economy will come up with plans for future disruptions. Specifically, we need to manufacture and store medical supplies domestically, because we might not be able to get what we need from Asia when we need it.
Truly, the most important element of this time of trial is our chance to relate to each other in a better way. I am getting a lot of communication (in addition to YouTube videos) from folks I don’t hear from very often. I am trying to call those I am close to every other day. My wife and I have received numerous offers of help from those concerned about old folks. Our world has become a much kinder place the last few weeks and I hope the same for you. Let us try to savor that aspect of this unpleasantness.
