“It’s communities…”

By Samantha Woo

Posted: March 31, 2020

“It’s communities that will do this. There is no magic bullet, there’s no magic vaccine or therapy. It’s just behaviors–each of our behaviors translating into something that changes the course of this viral pandemic…in the course of the next few days.”- Dr. Deborah Birx, 3/31/20 in Coronavirus Task Force briefing

Dr. Birx’s words speak for themselves not only for the way people can overcome this pandemic we all are fighting, but in shedding light on a deeper level many other “issues” we face daily. So many times, we bemoan what is going on “out there”, “around us”, and many times it is legitimate. But much like the infamous “curve” of the trajectory of the virus behavior , the curve of the outcome in many of our “issues” can depend on our own individual behaviors “affecting the curve”. On a larger scale, we can think of examples like of global warming, and on a smaller scale, we think of how a soccer team-member may perform in the hopes of the overall team result.

Even on a familial level, we see it (maybe more often now in quarantine). One member’s behavior can impact the whole family, communities, for better or for worse.