Coronavirus disease 2019 is wreaking havoc upon the world. It has affected every aspect of life from home to work to travel. Many once busy streets are now quiet, many grocery store shelves are empty and many people are avoiding contact with the people they love most.
No matter where you stand in society, COVID-19 has almost certainly affected your life. In one way, it’s the great equalizer, hitting humans across the social spectrum, from the infirm in a nursing home to powerful political leaders.
One day, COVID-19 will not be the monster we fear today. It is seeming more likely that a drug will be developed and cut down the fatality rate within the coming months. After that, a vaccine. But even if there is a cure, the changes to our society will linger even longer than the disease.
Dysfunction exposed
COVID-19, more than anything, has exposed the American — as well as much of Earth’s — social system as being dysfunctional. Dysfunctional as in unprepared for threats that hit Americans at all walks of life. These threats not only include pandemics like Ebola and SARS, but also asteroids, supervolcano eruptions, potential famines and freshwater shortages across the globe that brought on by climate change. No matter where any of those threats originate, Americans will eventually feel the ripple…
