Bringing Out the Best in Us

In the upcoming week you'll see numerous writings about national private sector efforts to enhance COVID response, communication, and collaboration.

As part of doing this work, one of my colleagues noted that the she's seen many recent examples of current events bringing out the best in people. There's a willingness to help, a eagerness to volunteer, and a sense of belonging by banding together for a common cause. Yes there are stories about hoarding toilet paper and purell, but those are minor distractions compared to the good things happening around us.

Here are examples of what I've seen in the past 24 hours.

1. A major data analytics company focused on COVID modeling asked to collaborate with a major vaccine lab to accelerate development
2. A group of competing companies aligned to create national policy requests that enable more virtual care
3. Two competing big tech companies agreed to work together on helpful web-based resources for the country
4. Big tech companies are offering expertise and credits for cloud resources
5. An EHR company is working on a heat map showing orders placed for COVID testing as a proxy for virus spread
6. An AI company is creating a map of national searches for COVID symptoms as a proxy for virus spread
7. Many companies are offering free/reduced cost services in support of COVID response
8. A non-profit recognized that we'll likely need a national vaccine registry linked by a nationwide patient matching strategy when a vaccine is available 12-18 months from now. They will assemble a guiding coalition for that effort.
9. A group of investigators is working on a trial of using convalescent plasma as a mechanism of conferring immunity.
10. A laboratory is seeking coronavirus positive blood to accelerate the development an easy to run, highly specific serology-based blood test

For all the anxiety we feel, it's clear that many people are working for the common good. So if you're feeling that the future will be more Mad Max than Star Trek, realize that people around the world are working together to create the best possible outcome.

Working together, we can make a difference.