Remington Tonar and Ellis Talton
With hours-long screening lines at America’s airports causing confusion and frustration, with supply chain shortages limiting access to essential goods, with economically important events being cancelled and mass transit ridership plummeting as people create social distance, it is clear that the country’s infrastructure is ill-prepared for the type of natural disaster that coronavirus presents: the kind that drives people apart rather than bringing them together.
Ultimately, more innovative, redundant, flexible and decentralized infrastructure can help us reduce biological risk while maintaining economic stability. We depend on these physical systems to enable, power and facilitate our lives. They were built to connect us, not divide us. Yet, while social distancing is healthy and necessary, our infrastructure can and should allow us to minimize human contact while preserving our humanity.