By Matt Erskine, Chief Strategy Officer, Connected DMV
As states ease COVID restrictions, more and more people post their vaccine selfies and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updates its mask guidance. It’s beginning to feel like the country is getting back to normal and, in many ways, we are. But the truth is that what we do now in this moment will determine whether we’ve learned the right lessons from the last year of a pandemic that’s cost the world more than 3 million lives. Last month, an independent review panel of the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic ordered by the World Health Organization called it a preventable disaster, the result of “a myriad failures, gaps and delays in preparedness and response.” It was the 21st century’s “Chernobyl moment,” members said. Today, the question in front of us is not if, but when, it will happen again — and whether we have the political will to arm ourselves now against equally or more devastating viral threats that are lurking on the horizon.