How will you remember COVID-19?
Peter Tsai, the inventor of the N-95 mask, recently came out of retirement to see if he could find effective ways to sterilize masks for re-use as hospitals find themselves short of personal protective equipment.
Taxi drivers in Madrid have given more than 75,000 free rides for COVID-19 patients to local hospitals, even when their industry's revenue has declined by 80%.
Johnson and Johnson is already building manufacturing facilities to produce a vaccine at population scale, even though their vaccine is still in the earliest stages of testing and even though they won't a dime of profit from it because of the enormous expense they are incurring.
An untold number of doctors and nurses are coming out of retirement, putting themselves at risk and are volunteering at overcrowded hospitals in places like New York, Italy, and Spain.
Locally, a group of churches has gotten together to meet the immediate physical needs (food, laundry, etc.) of those that have impacted by COVID-19. Likewise, business leaders have established a multi-million dollar fund to make rent payments for those that have lost their jobs.
Sometime in the future, coronavirus will pass and life will return to normal. It will, however, be the defining event of my children's generation, much in the same way that 9/11 was for my generation and the moon landing was for my parent's generation.
When you look back at this time in the future, how will think about the time that you spent?
Will you say, "I watched a lot of news conferences", "I got a lot of house projects done", and "Homeschooling my children was a lot of work"?
Or, will you say, "I can't believe some of the things we pulled off trying to help people" and "There were a lot of heroes working tirelessly to save lives, and I played a small part in those efforts."
Now is a time for selflessness, generosity and community solidarity.
Volunteer with food distribution organizations. Donate to organizations helping those impacted by COVID-19. Help your high-risk neighbors with any errands that are too risky for them to do themselves. Sew cloth masks and give them to anyone that isn't wearing a mask out in public.
Find a way to help. Be the hero the world needs today.