As people get more and more sick of quarantine I'm getting more and more questions "when will this be over?"

'Over' is not the right word, especially not for scientists. The problem is that I think scientists often believe that data alone is enough to change things. It's not.

There will be a time when cases go down locally, but rise elsewhere, and someone will say, "Not our problem."

We will see that #COVID19 hits Black and Brown and poor communities hardest, and someone will say, "That's not really my science."

There is a way of thinking that suggests scientists should refrain from being advocates, since advocates cannot be impartial and scientists must be.

Our science is saving lives. We cannot be ambivalent with that goal in mind.

We need to prepare ourselves for a frustrating journey ahead. It is hard to change big systems, and not everyone will agree that they need to be changed, *despite what is clear to us in the data*.

We must find a way around. And we will, because we won't be alone.

I love science and science is my life. But what we need simply can't be accomplished with science alone. We need political will, that thing we don't know how to get. We need community engagement, the thing we are afraid to ask for. But now is the time.