Will we bounce back?

We have a #coronavirus-questions channel in Auth0 Slack that evolved from HR Q&A into some kind of Coronavirus Lounge. And today someone asked linking to an article:

Do you think we can bounce back from this?

Opinion | The Best-Case Outcome for the Coronavirus, and the Worst

We will get hit. Hard.

At this moment, we are, unfortunately, headed towards the worse scenarios, and things that are about to unfold in the next few weeks are already in motion. We will see Italy all over here for as long as some of the strictest quarantine measures are not mandated and ruthlessly enforced nationwide. We will be hit, and we will be hit hard. Buckle up, prepare for a long haul, wash your hands, stay home, be kind, and all this; we already know the drill.

But.

We can bounce back from this and we most certainly will. It’s not the first pandemic humanity faces, it’s not going to be the last one either; this is not an extinction event by any stretch.

We will adapt, all the best human qualities will be again in the highest regard, and we’ll be surprised how many fantastic human beings were around us all along! We’ll build stronger communities, connections, new ways of doing things, new values — and I’m not talking about toilet paper per se. We will have a healthier economy, even if it’s going to be 10x smaller. And hopefully, we’ll learn a few things along the way:

• a lesson in humility
• value of transparency
• importance of sustainability
• what leadership is
• how all of humanity is in it together (whatever this it might be)

These lessons are unlikely to come from our governments (not from the federal government, that’s for sure), but they will come from true leaders who are handling the situation with selfless passion as we speak. We all have seen these examples many times already.

Let’s have each other’s backs. Check-in. Connect in whichever ways we can. Help those we can help, worry about the things we can actually control, and do what’s in our power.

We’ll bounce back, scarred and battered, but stronger and more resilient. Millions of people will die. Millions of people will be disabled for the rest of their lives. And whole generations will never be the same, and will always remember the devastating Coronavirus pandemic of 2020. But on the brighter side, we are likely to see a variety of implementations of UBI across the world, universal healthcare in America along with guaranteed paid sick and family leave (finally!). The economy will shift from pumping imaginary “value” into the “stock market” to responsible sustainability. We may actually have a fighting chance at slowing down the climate change crisis; we may even come up with creative solutions for it, and survive it after all.

It’s going to be bad. But we will bounce back 💪