There is no going back. The only way out is through—past a turbulent spring, across an unusual summer, and into an unsettled year beyond. ​ Stockdale’s strategy, instead, was to meld hope with realism—“the need for absolute, unwavering faith that you can prevail,” as he put it, with “the discipline to begin by confronting the brutal facts, whatever they are.” ​ They undoubtedly raise privacy concerns, but as my colleague Derek Thompson argues, “Compared with our present nightmare, strategically sacrificing our privacy might be the best way to protect other freedoms.”

People whose privilege and power would normally shield them from a crisis are facing quarantines, testing positive, and losing loved ones. Senators are falling sick. ​ Perhaps it will appreciate that health-care workers and public-health specialists compose America’s social immune system, ​ Group B includes everyone else, and their job is to buy Group A more time. ​ We realized that her child might be one of the first of a new cohort who are born into a society profoundly altered by COVID-19. We decided to call them Generation C.

Also, hello, I'm temporarily pausing book leave, and back to working full-time at the Atlantic to do pandemic reporting for the foreseeable.— Ed Yong is on sabbatical (@edyong209) March 16, 2020