Citizens are ordered to stay in their homes by the government. A deadly virus ravages the globe. The media is no longer trusted. The year is two thousand…twenty. It’s pretty surreal isn’t it? Who knew 2020 would be such a drastic departure from normal?

About a month ago I wrote about how, due to the pandemic, people will need to increase their comfortability with 3 things: change, boredom, and data. It doesn’t seem like we’re doing particularly well with any of them.

Not only are citizens protesting against the statewide lockdowns, it appears they are doing so because they are ignoring or incapable of looking at the data. There is collective distrust of science. It's important to remember that it was science that has brought such a high standard of living to the 21st century. It will be science that enables humanity to conquer Covid-19. If you examine the data, you’ll see that 2 strategies have thus far proven effective at stopping the virus: social distancing, and contact tracing.

As the American population is barely capable of staying home, it seems very farfetched we would agree to contact tracing. And why are we not capable of sheltering-in-place? Is it really about freedom? I would argue it’s more about boredom. People want to see their friends and family. People want to go back to their hobbies and leisure activities to which they’re accustomed. We are social creatures; it’s ingrained in our biology. I get it—I really struggle with it on certain days too. Have the people who are protesting taken a true look at their motivations? This is new and different and scary and so much change.

Which is the last variable we need to get better at handling: change. All of this is new. There are probably only a dozen people alive today who experienced the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918, and they were probably too young to truly ‘experience’ it. This has never happened before for any of us. Treating a novel virus is hard. Losing loved ones to a scary disease is hard. Struggling to make ends meet because of the shutdown is hard. Forcing ourselves to be asocial is hard. Perhaps familiarizing ourselves with the data is even hard.

But if we’re too self-centered to protect others from a health crisis we still know so little about, how are we supposed to become more comfortable with data, boredom, and change?

I fully believe we can make it through this pandemic. I believe we can come out of it better—more aware, more kind and understanding, more connected. We completely can. The question is…will we? Let’s resolve to get better at these 3 variables. If we focus on just these 3 things in these turbulent times, we can change the world.