The Coronavirus Will Make Us Stronger

The Coronavirus Will Make Us Stronger

By Jeffrey M. Bowen

We are awash in a tsunami of bad news about the spread of the coronavirus and the urgent preventive steps we must take to curb the disaster and reduce the death rate.  Not for one minute should we deny or belittle the seriousness of this monstrous thing, but it may help to think just a bit about mitigating factors.  The news is not all bad.  Here are 10 examples of possible silver linings in our storm clouds of crisis. Probably you can think of many more.

•       Americans have always been resourceful, adaptive, and creative.  It is no coincidence that we register more patents than any other country in the world.  Research institutions and retooled businesses are rapidly developing promising medical interventions, health and safety equipmen   

•    Volunteerism is burgeoning as we look for ways to help one another; for example, consider the thousands of qualified retired medical staff who are arriving to support hospitals in New York City.  Meanwhile, many residents are sewing together home-made protective face masks to share with neighbors.

• ·         Staying at home and avoiding travel is not just reducing infection, but also lowering our consumption of fuel, thereby renewing the environment and improving the climate.  Also, less dependence on motorized transport is encouraging healthy outdoor activity like walking.

• ·         Whether through schools, businesses, and social media, we are developing nontraditional communications technology.  As we become more adept with electronic connections, we are gaining impressive practical benefits while breaking down social isolation and enhancing mental health.

• ·         Family life is enriched in ways we never expected, opening up communication channels among relatives and friends, and improving relationships for the future.  Going through a trial like this together has a unifying effect, despite the many emotional stresses togetherness may create.

• ·         We are learning, perhaps the hard way, that organized preparation and planning for disaster has a massive practical payoff.  What is more, efforts like this demonstrate the need for competent, reassuring leadership across all levels of government.

• ·         We are discovering that the knowledge afforded our children in this crisis may not be measurable in test scores, but certainly can and will be in terms of authentic, relevant real-world learning.  As many parents are discovering, teachers are an invaluable bridge between home and school.

• ·         We are learning that our dependence on immigrants, “legal” or not, makes them in many ways an essential cog in the machinery of our economy and national welfare.

• ·         There is dramatic, definitive evidence of world interdependence. Urgent cues for international cooperation may inspire new configurations of diplomacy, economic reciprocity, and peaceful coexistence.   

• ·         The science of disease is percolating, with benefits that will reach far beyond Covid-19.  New medications and innovative solutions are being tested,   hopefully with bureaucratic delays minimized.

The consequences of the coronavirus are truly at a crisis level.  Yet in every terrible trial or situation there is something we can learn, something we can gain. Besides all of the above, the gain stems partly from perspective.  Perhaps when all this reaches an exhausting conclusion, we may say some good things came out of this mess after all.  Surely we are being tested, and we will grow stronger.

4/4/2020