How We Learn to Take Responsibility for the Fate of Our Species
The recent pandemic has taught us many things as a species, not the least of which concerns how to more effectively discuss and make sense of polarizing fear-addled subjects. It seems this is the way we learn our lessons in evolution, one disaster at a time. Much the same way air travel is made incrementally safer through assessment of tragic but somewhat unavoidable crashes, engineering a stronger civilization requires endless trial in order to correct inherent design errors.
One such lesson from the global shutdown by COVID-19 is that we can each individually act in meaningful ways to cushion the burden of future pandemics. For instance, implementation of four months’ moderate social-distancing has been projected to save hundreds of thousands of lives and $8 trillion by University of Chicago economist Vishan Nigam. That is the equivalent of $60,000 per household that can be directed into wiser civic action like basic emergency healthcare or bridge repair. And while the pandemic has ostensibly afflicted the aged and weakened, Nigam suggests that 90% of these savings will be reaped by persons under the age of 50 since they will be the ones occupying the planet the longest.
This is your world, and you and you and you decide how it looks tomorrow. One way we can each meaningfully influence the outcome of future pandemics is by donning masks early. Why? Not necessarily because mask-wearing alone can be measured to slow the spread of infection, but more broadly because it inspires a willingness to fight the epidemic amongst your community. Because social-distancing is absolutely critical in limiting contagious contact, mask-wearing by individuals underscores the urgency of restraining the outbreak. Having masks on hand in households also mitigates the run on these barriers once an epidemic is underway, which potentially reduces stress on healthcare organizations.
What is clear is that we save trillions of dollars and we save thousands of lives by colluding in early action. Each of us can influence the swift transition to a more careful, cautionary atmosphere and we can do so with grace. Instead of panic and fear, we can instead don an equally contagious air of responsibility for own collective future. Many Asian citizens have been masking up when sick for some time now, though the reason appears more traditional than empirical. When it comes to health, these cultures seem to have historically placed special importance on the quality of breath. The effect is the same, regardless of one’s reasoning, whether it be empirical or ancestral: preparedness saves. Countries like Taiwan and S. Korea had a minimal impact from the disease due to early and coordinated precautions, despite existing directly tangential to ground-zero of the virus.
Disasters like COVID-19 Give Business an Opportunity for Stewardship
A long list of companies have retooled their production lines to meet the demands of the pandemic. This includes treatments and vaccines, protective equipment, hand-sanitizers, and other patient and healthcare services. While such productions ultimately serve the bottom line of those businesses, there are even more encouraging signs that stewardship is a valuable characteristic for a successful company. For instance, tech giants like Airbnb have volunteered housing for first responders. Others like Anaplan and Medallia provide free access to their tools for nonprofits and other epidemiological entities responding to COVID-19. Multi-national ride-hailing service, Uber, has pledged 10 million free rides and food deliveries for health care workers and afflicted individuals.
Some other corporate monoliths have also stepped up with donations and services. Facebook has pledged $20 million and Apple $15 million. Amazon has taken a slightly different approach by nurturing its ecosystem of small business by donating $5 million to businesses local to its main headquarters in Seattle, WA, which was one of the more hard-hit regions in the United States. They’ve also banded together with software giant Microsoft, which has recently dropped $1 million to tackle the local economy. Billionaire Mark Cuban understands the need to care for his ecosystem and is reimbursing his employees who patronize local restaurants at lunch hour. Big corporate franchises and local restaurants alike have instead offered up the lunch to children that have been displaced from school-lunch programs.
All of these gestures by individuals, corporations, and local biz are good news for sure and hopefully we can expect even more stories like this during the next pandemic. There will always be a next epidemic, earthquake, or drought. Calamity dates back as far as history itself. In this manner, human existence is very much akin to other physical thermodynamic systems. In order to establish order, we must periodically face a lot of chaos and pay with even more of hard work. Recognizing that individual actions, on the smallest scale, sum to collective decisiveness is crucial to our ascendancy as a species. The future that is available to us has the potential to look infinitely humane and efficient compared to our plodding, often tragically brutal past. We simply need to remain committed to refining our navigation as we each walk toward the daylight.
