Chapter 1 The Pandemic: The Reliability of People
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n 2050, I will be seventy-five years old. At that point, I envision there will be times and events that I will look back at with real clarity, i.e., key points in history. My parents remember where they were when JFK was shot. My father can recall the stress and decisions around Vietnam like it was yesterday. People reflect on the Cold War, the New Deal, and the Great Depression with thoughtful analysis as they are considered pivotal moments and events in our history. I remember the sadness when the Challenger space shuttle exploded. And the time my sister fell into a creek behind our house and I held on to her hand while I yelled for my dad. I remember standing in a bedroom in a townhome in Australia when I heard for the first time that America had been attacked by terrorists on September 11, 2001. I imagine in a decade or so that our generation will reflect on the COVID-19 lockdown as one of our society’s biggest mistakes. Why? Because I believe that we will look back and recognize that we caused unmitigated and unparalleled damage to our economy, our society, and our way of life through a combination of fear, poor analysis, and even worse decisions. Not because people weren’t good. And not because they didn’t want to do good things. After all, didn’t we want to save lives? When I think of my aging parents, and the risks that coronavirus presented to our elder population, it scared me too. It is rare that decisions we make are so critical that they can have a major impact on our lives. We make thousands of 13
