Things won't be back to normal for at least a year, likely two. You won't be in a crowded bar (legally) for at least 18 months. We'll look back on this period of time like a fever dream, having barely noticed that everything has changed.

We've adapted by working from home and having zoom happy hours, but this isn't going away anytime soon and these hacks aren't built to last. We need all of our best and brightest to lead, and I'm not talking about the gerontocracy that sleepwalked us into this mess.

People are already starting to call for closing borders and putting the military in charge. Don't let it happen.

We don't need a dictator, there is no one person who can save us. But our crippled institutions won't save us either.

We need to ignore the rules that slow vaccine development. We will need crowd-sourced analysis of potential cures developed in whatever labs are bold enough to break the rules to save humanity.

Our biotech companies have the skills to start testing vaccines immediately, damn the bureaucrats. Dare the FDA to shut you down. Open source your data and pipelines, let a thousand wet labs bloom.