What If COVID-19 becomes COVID-21?

Are we ready for what lies ahead?

London lockdown. Not March 2020, but December 2020. New virus variant reported in Paris this morning. New York governor warns one million people landed in New York in last week.

A vaccine is here, but the reality of vaccinating over 300 million people twice is here as well. With hospitals overwhelmed the idea we’ve turned some kind of corner is naïve optimism.

We assume we know the plot of this story. We assume the stadiums will be filled and the Broadway lights lit. We assume these things because that is our best character. Humans win. We invent. We adapt.

Warnings signs flash year after year. Warning signs are a feature at the (now dark) cinema. Apocalyptic films are a regular popcorn muncher. How many times have we seen our cities destroyed, our coastline swamped, mobs of zombies swarm over the wall?

Our collective dreaming can create reality you know. We’ve dreamed an entire universe into being. What does it say about us we’ve been investing in dreams of destruction and doom? Given our bloody history, what makes us think our ending is anything but violent?

We fight huge wars, uncover a horrendous Holocaust, nuke an entire city, gather in shame and remorse to form a United Nations so we never again…