Malcolm Gladwell, in his book, The Tipping Point, wrote about how epidemics follow “the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, (and) the Power of Context.” He says plagues start with a few “connectors,” who carry a very contagious or “sticky” virus to a place ripe for its spread, with little consensus or agreement about what to do once the epidemic begins. And that is what happened with COVID-19, which has now reached a tipping point.

We are caught between politicians who want to open up the economy and the schools, and public health professionals, most of whom advise against it. Legally, the politicians have the power to force closures and re-openings during a pandemic, but public health professionals exert another type of control through their command of data. Yet despite this illusion of control, the pandemic has reminded us that the more control we try to exert over nature, the more nature reminds us of how little we really have.

Why have evangelical Christians resisted public-health warnings about COVID-19? Christianity upholds the principle of doing unto others as you would have the do unto you. Not wearing masks violates that, since they protect others who might catch the coronavirus. The answer to the question may lie with the unholy alliance that has emerged in the U.S. between some conservative Protestants and politicians, infusing religion into politics and dismissing science by blind-faith followers of a bad-faith president.

Communities of color have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19, in part because of the weathering effect of poverty on people. What can we learn from protecting buildings from weathering to reduce the weathering of people?

Viruses do not just attack us physically; they also prey upon our political weaknesses, especially when leaders either hide information, as happened in China, or downplay the threat, as happened in the U.S. Both allow the virus to go viral.

COVID-19 had a humble birth in Wuhan, China, and has gone on to disrupt the entire world. Humanity has dealt with plagues before, and like those in the past, this one will transform how we live and what we do to ensure public health.