Vancouver's Regulation Redesign Public Hearing Thursday June 25th, 2020

     This coming Thursday, Vancouver will be holding a Public Hearing to consider a number of zoning amendments that arise from a regulatory review that has been underway for some time. I wrote about this in the Courier in March https://www.vancourier.com/opinion/city-of-vancouver-wants-input-into-cutting-red-tape-in-its-building-permit-procedures-1.24093581

     While this seemed like a most worthwhile and much-needed review, it had not received much attention. Indeed, as noted in my article, I was one of the few people in attendance at an Open House held at City Hall. 

     As noted by Marco D'Agostino, the planner in charge of the review, the regulatory review/redesign is intended to rationalize a myriad of zoning regulations, including those related to balconies, porches, decks, in both residential and commercial zones.

     I should note that I applaud the city for undertaking this review and support the recommendations, with one further modification that I describe below.

     I only learned about the Open House from representatives of Lumon, a Finnish company that manufactures a retractable glass system that can be installed on balconies in both existing and new buildings to improve livability and performance. For the past two years, I have been assisting Lumon in seeking municipal approvals to allow installations without the area of the balcony being deemed 'enclosed' and therefore included in FSR calculations. While their system is so approved in over 20 countries around the world, and numerous jurisdictions across Canada and around Metro, it is not yet approved in Vancouver without FSR ramifications in those zones where enclosed balconies are not permitted or limited.

   

The reason why balconies incorporating retractable balcony glass and other similar European-style systems should not be deemed 'enclosed' is that these systems do not create a conventional exterior wall or 'conditioned interior space'. The fully retractable single-pane glass panels have air gaps at top and bottom and sides, and are designed primarily to keep the rain out, and reduce wind and noise. Despite the gaps, tests have shown that the system can improve energy performance and sound attenuation, and increase the longevity of balconies.

It's a bit like creating a 'convertible balcony'.

Although I shared a presentation some time ago with City officials, I have recently updated it to include the city's differing zoning regulations related to balconies and some observations about the importance of balconies that have become apparent during the recent pandemic. A full copy of the presentation can be found below.

     If you agree that the city should allow the installation of retractable balcony glass systems made by Lumon and other manufacturers in both new and existing buildings, please write to the Mayor and Council at MayorandCouncil@CityofVancouver.ca or consider speaking at Thursday's Public Hearing. You can sign up here: https://council.vancouver.ca/20200625/phea20200625ag.htm You can also find the proposed bylaw changes here as well. Now, everything you ever wanted to know about balconies!

     

Presentation to Temple Sholom Mens Club May 25, 2020

While I haven't written much if anything about Covid-19, I have certainly spent a lot of time, like most other people, thinking about how it has influenced our lives over the past few months, and how it might influence our lives, and our cities in the future. Last month I was invited to give a talk to the Temple Sholom Mens Club on the impacts of Covid on real estate, looking at residential and commercial markets, as well as planning considerations. 

After agreeing to give the talk, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Pat Johnson, a freelance writer who contributes to the Jewish Independent, Vancouver's much appreciated  Jewish Community newspaper, wrote an article about my talk. Rather than tell you what I thought I said, here's his account of what he reported.  I just wish I was as articulate and thoughtful as Pat makes me sound!

by Pat Johnson for Jewish Independent

The COVID pandemic and the months of social isolation it created will have impacts on real estate prices, urban design and human behaviours, says a local expert. But the changes are not likely to be revolutionary so much as accelerate trends already underway.

Michael Geller, an architect, planner, real estate consultant and property developer, spoke to the Temple Sholom Men’s Club in a virtual event via the meeting platform Zoom May 25. (For more on the club, click here.) Geller is also adjunct professor in Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Sustainable Community Development and a longtime leader in Jewish communal organizations. His topic was Real Estate in the Era of COVID.

“Housing sales are down significantly and are as low as they have been in recent memory,” he said. Wages have been dramatically impacted for an enormous number of individuals and household debt is increasing significantly. Many renters are unable to meet their payments.

Housing sales are affected by the obvious issues of economics, but also because buyers and sellers are reticent about the physical interaction required in the process of viewing potential homes. Sales have not entirely collapsed, though, he noted.

“There are still some bidding wars for more affordable condos, priced under $700,000,” said Geller, adding: “Can you imagine 30 years ago being told that affordable condos would be under 700,000? It just shows you what has happened to our market in recent years.”

While sales are down, there has not been a significant increase in the supply of either listings or new homes coming to market, he said. “So, at the moment, we aren’t seeing the dramatic drop in prices that many assumed, myself included, would occur.”

What may occur is a stalling of new construction because lenders are cautious. “They don’t want to lend money for anyone to buy land at the moment,” he said. “This is a significant factor.”

While there were many years when there was almost no purpose-built rental housing created, this has shifted, with about 4,000 new units this year in the city proper and 9,300 in Metro Vancouver. This supply, combined with the economic challenges brought about by the pandemic, have had impacts on rental rates. “For the first time in a long time, we are starting to see a softening of rent,” he said.

Foreign investment has been credited with playing an outsized role in property values in recent decades and some commentators speculate that buyers may be “circling like vultures” in the event of comparative real estate bargains in British Columbia, he said.

Geller noted the opposite could occur, however, as the market softens. “Some of the people who came, especially from mainland China but also Hong Kong and Europe, might actually divest themselves of their investments and pull out of the Vancouver market,” he said.

International events will also likely play a role. Uncertainty and upheaval around changes in China’s governance of Hong Kong could make Canada very appealing, especially to the 300,000 residents of Hong Kong who have Canadian citizenship.

“We have a high level of personal safety and, when you think about it, that is one of the most important considerations,” he said. “You can have all the money in the world but if you don’t feel safe in your home at night, you may not necessarily stay in that home.”

British Columbia’s recognized success in dealing with the pandemic has enhanced its international image. “As we start to focus more and more on health issues, that cannot be ignored,” he said.

Foreign investment in Vancouver has dropped significantly since the implementation of the foreign buyers’ tax.

“Will those foreign buyers come back, even if they have to pay 20% premium?” Geller asked. “If they don’t come back, and if that means local developers decide not to build, whether it be rental or condominiums, and we start to see significant unemployment of all those construction workers … then it may well be that the government says, you know, this is a difficult situation, these are unprecedented times and maybe they’ll just decide that, for the next two years, the foreign buyers tax will be reduced to five percent rather than 20% in order to stimulate the economy.”

On the commercial real estate front, the experience of working from home may change our relationship to the office. If people continue working remotely, that could reduce demand for office space. On the flip side, new ideas of personal space and social distancing could mean that people come to expect fewer workers in more space, thereby increasing demand.

If more people do opt for remote work options, some may choose to move to more affordable and remote locations. Home design might adapt to include formal workspaces so that people aren’t using kitchen counters as desks. Condo towers and apartment buildings might opt for hotel-style shared business centres rather than spas. They may move toward more “touchless tech” – a familiar example being the Shabbat elevator.

As stores reopen, retailers may see a decline in shoppers, but Geller suspects that warehouse space is headed for a bull market. “As more and more people are buying online, there is a need for more and more warehouse space to store all this product before it’s delivered,” he said. “This applies not just to clothing and giftware, it applies to food and other goods that are stored in cold warehouses.”

Looking at social changes that have resulted from pandemics in previous centuries, Geller said, “One of the things that came out of [earlier pandemics] was an appreciation of the need for more parks and green space throughout the cities. Central Park in New York, that was created by the New York City Board of Health because of the belief that this would lead to improved human environmental health for everybody in the city. In most European cities and many other American cities, large parks and green networks were created to help people lead healthier lives.”

Improved sanitation, water supply and sewage treatment systems were also at least partly a result of these catastrophes. Home design changed, including the advent of sleeping porches, based on the understanding that fresh air was preferable to stuffy interiors. The modern bathroom, including the proliferation of white tiles that both made it easier to clean and added to the perception of sterility, emerged. Wooden toilet seats, which were the norm, were replaced by plastic ones.

“The powder room became a creation in a larger house because the man who came to deliver the coal or to deliver the ice, you didn’t want them going through your house using your bathroom, so powder rooms became popular,” he said.

Though he had plenty of ideas, Geller was emphatic that he didn’t really know what the future holds. But he has some confidence about a general forecast.

“Often,” he said, “pandemics and similar sorts of events accelerate changes that were already happening.”

Vancouver planning, transportation & housing in the era of Covid-19. A presentation to the Phoenix Breakfast Club

This morning I made a presentation to the Phoenix Group, a gathering of real estate professionals, some of whom have been meeting almost every week since 1983. While previous speakers have addressed some of the market impacts of COVID-19, since I am an architect and planner, I was invited to focus on some of the potential planning implications of the pandemic, at the scale of the city, neighbourhood, individual buildings and suites.

While the reality is that none of us really know what's going to happen, we can learn from past pandemics that altered the design of our cities and homes. This presentation looks at some of these changes, and shares the views of the City of Vancouver and others, on what might happen in our region.

Here is a link to my presentation. Feel free to share as you see fit!

https://www.scribd.com/presentation/464231649/Phoenix-Group-Real-Estate-in-the-Era-of-Covid-19-Presentation

Vancouver Sun Westcoast Homes & Design: "Your space might be limited; your design vision shouldn't be" April 3, 2020

     My second column for Westcoast Homes & Design was written for the 'Decoration Issue'. For many years I have been fascinated by the opportunities afforded by smaller homes and have often thought residential designers could learn from those who design boat and recreational vehicles interiors.
     Since I happened to be attending Palm Spring's annual Modernism Week celebration of mid-century homes and design when it was time to write the column, I decided to focus on some of the  trailers on display at the Vintage Trailer exhibit. https://tickets.modernismweek.com/f/mw20/trailer
Unfortunately, there wasn't room to include my photos, so I have added a few here.


Below is my column. https://vancouversun.com/homes/westcoast-homes-and-design/design/your-space-might-be-limited-your-design-vision-shouldnt-be/
Would you like to live in a 280-square-foot home? Probably not. Would you like to live on a 40-foot yacht? Possibly yes. While we don’t usually measure a boat’s living area in square feet, a 40-foot boat equates to approximately 280 square feet. However, these boats are often surprisingly livable since the furniture is built in and spaces are designed to be flexible and multi-functional.

For example, the dining area is easily converted into a double bed. Seating areas and tables can also be transformed for sleeping.

Given the growing interest in laneway housing, tiny homes and generally smaller living spaces, residential designers can learn a great deal from studying boat interior layouts. They can also learn by examining the design of many recreational vehicles and trailers.

A few years ago, I was reminded of the delights, challenges and benefits of small-space living while spending a weekend in a 120-square-foot recreational vehicle. At eight by 15 feet, it included kitchen facilities, a small bathroom with shower, and living, dining and sleeping areas. There were numerous built-in cabinets and storage areas and it was beautifully decorated.

While it is one thing to live in a small space for a weekend, it is another to do so for an extended period. However, boats and RVs can offer important lessons when it comes to the design and decoration of smaller spaces.

This was very evident at Palm Springs’ recent Modernism Week, an annual 11-day event that celebrates mid-century modern design, architecture, art, furniture and fashion.The mission of Modernism Week is to foster an appreciation for mid-century architecture and design found throughout the greater Palm Springs area, with the hope that other cities will cherish and conserve their mid-century architecture.

The event includes double-decker bus and walking tours of iconic homes, many of which have been restored and furnished to appear exactly as they looked when first completed in the 1950s and ’60s.

One of my favourite Modernism Week events is the vintage trailer exhibition featuring a collection of trailers, campers and motor homes, most of which have been completely restored, equipped and decorated in a mid-century theme. You don’t have to be an RV aficionado to appreciate and enjoy this fascinating collection, which included a converted 1958 GMC Greyhound bus.

This delightful trailer even had a pull-out toilet under the bed!

The beauty, ingenuity and creativity of the compact designs on display offered many ideas that should be incorporated in smaller home designs being built throughout British Columbia. This was particularly true for the clever kitchen and bathroom layouts, built-ins and storage spaces that too often are missing from new homes.

Owners were in attendance to show off their creations, some of which are lived in year-round. There were also displays of furnishings and artifacts from the 1950s and ’60s, some of which were for sale at surprisingly high prices.

Every year, visitors can vote for their favourite exhibits in a variety of categories including best original, best restoration and People’s Choice. This year’s People’s Choice Award went to a gorgeous, fully restored and glistening 1959 Airstream Traveler. It featured varnished wood panelling and cabinetry, two-toned turquoise-and-white appliances, and a quilted stainless-steel backsplash.

As I walked through its interior, I could not help but compare it with the bland interiors of too many of today’s apartments.

As the price of housing increases, living spaces will continue to become smaller and smaller. However, by carefully studying the interior design and decoration of boats and recreational vehicles, we will discover that smaller need not be equated with less livable, especially when furniture and spaces are carefully designed and transformable.

Vancouver Sun's Westcoast Homes & Design Magazine 'Tomorrow's Kitchen Today' February 8th, 2020

    
     Late last year, I was surprised and flattered to be invited to write a regular column from an architectural perspective for the Vancouver Sun's Westcoast Homes & Design magazine.
https://vancouversun.com/category/homes/westcoast-homes-and-design/
     The magazine is published bi-monthly and each issue is themed. My first column appeared in the
'Kitchen Issue' published in early February. Since today's kitchens are so very different from the kitchens of the past, I decided to review kitchen designs over the past century, including 'kitchens of the future' as envisioned over the years.
     I suspect I enjoyed writing the column much more than those who read it. But here it is, along with some of the images you can find online. https://vancouversun.com/homes/westcoast-homes-and-design/design/the-evolution-of-kitchens/

Today’s kitchens are very different from your grandmother’s kitchen. No longer are they small, separate rooms at the back of the home. Instead, they are an integral part of the living space.That said, designs featuring heritage-style gas ovens, shaker cabinets, clamshell pulls and glass cabinets are oftentimes indistinguishable from those of the past.Let’s look at how kitchens have changed through the decades.

In the 1920s, gas ovens were common in most domestic kitchens. The electric oven arrived a decade later, as did the electric refrigerator, which replaced the icebox. In 1930, fewer than 10 per cent of households had a refrigerator. By 1960, nearly all homes had them.

The innovative 1926 “Frankfurt kitchen” was the first to introduce continuous built-in cupboards and cabinets. However, by the 1950s, “fitted kitchens” with laminate countertops were standard. Countertops were designed to accommodate bar stools and built-in eating nooks became popular. Pastel-coloured appliances were all the rage.

In the 1960s, wall ovens with separate built-in cooktops arrived, along with garburators. Although dishwashers first appeared in the 1950s, they did not become commonplace until the 1970s, when microwave ovens also became popular.

The 1980s brought the open kitchen. In subsequent years, kitchen designs became sleeker with concealed built-in appliances. Granite and quartz replaced Arborite and Formica, and stainless-steel appliances become a popular choice.

So, what can we expect in the future? Before answering, let’s look at how futuristic kitchen designs were envisioned in the past.  General Motors/Frigidaire’s 1957 “Kitchen of the Future” featured an “ultrasonic” dishwasher, an IBM electro-recipe file that activated an ingredient dispenser, a Thermopane domed oven, and a roto-storage system with dry, refrigerated and frozen sections.

In 1967, designers envisioned computerized kitchens where food was prepared and frozen, then quickly microwaved to order. Meals could be personalized so that each family member got what they wanted and needed with the right level of nutrition.

As we look to the future, it is worthwhile examining some of the ideas incorporated in IKEA’s 2025 kitchen, which was first revealed in 2015. It will be smaller, smarter and more sustainable. It will be highly integrated with the home’s other living spaces and offer multi-purpose food preparation areas that can also function as spaces for dining, work, and children’s play.

IKEA’s 2025 kitchen will increase efficiency and reduce food waste. Food storage will change. Instead of large refrigerators in which many items are often forgotten and wasted, food will be cooled in special containers that communicate with transmitters printed on the food’s packaging to regulate the temperature. Consequently, appliances won’t waste energy keeping food colder than necessary. 

The IKEA kitchen presumes future residents will be charged for every pound of garbage generated and rewarded for recycling.Water conservation will be facilitated through special sink designs, and there will be new approaches to composting. Instead of dumping compost waste into an outdoor green bin, a device will extract water from discarded food and compress it into dry, odourless pucks, ready for municipal pickup.

Predictions from other designers include: in-home systems to harvest food waste into compost for the garden; built-in hydroponic gardens to grow food at home; and 3D printers that will print food.

Personal digital assistants like Google Home or Alexa will connect to appliances, and will tell you if you don’t have enough strawberries for your smoothie.

If you think this all sounds too fantastic, just head over to your local appliance store and look at the features offered by the latest refrigerators on display. You will quickly discover the future is already here.

An interview with Larry Brilliant, the senior technical advisor for the film Contagion

Larry Brilliant says he doesn’t have a crystal ball. But 14 years ago, Brilliant, the epidemiologist who helped eradicate smallpox, spoke to a TED audience and described what the next pandemic would look like. At the time, it sounded almost too horrible to take seriously. “A billion people would get sick," he said. “As many as 165 million people would die. There would be a global recession and depression, and the cost to our economy of $1 to $3 trillion would be far worse for everyone than merely 100 million people dying, because so many more people would lose their jobs and their health care benefits, that the consequences are almost unthinkable.”

Now the unthinkable is here, and Brilliant, the Chairman of the board of Ending Pandemics, is sharing expertise with those on the front lines. We are a long way from 100 million deaths due to the novel coronavirus, but it has turned our world upside down. Brilliant is trying not to say “I told you so” too often. But he did tell us so, not only in talks and writings, but as the senior technical advisor for the pandemic horror film Contagion, now a top streaming selection for the homebound. Besides working with the World Health Organization in the effort to end smallpox, Brilliant, who is now 75, has fought flu, polio, and blindness; once led Google’s nonprofit wing, Google.org; co-founded the conferencing system the Well; and has travelled with the Grateful Dead.

We talked by phone on Tuesday. At the time, President Donald Trump’s response to the crisis had started to change from “no worries at all” to finally taking more significant steps to stem the pandemic. Brilliant lives in one of the six Bay Area counties where residents were ordered to shelter in place. When we began the conversation, he’d just gotten off the phone with someone he described as high government official, who asked Brilliant “How the fuck did we get here?” I wanted to hear how we’ll get out of here. The conversation has been edited and condensed.

Steven Levy: I was in the room in 2006 when you gave that TED talk. Your wish was “Help Me Stop Pandemics.” You didn't get your wish, did you?

Larry Brilliant: No, I didn't get that wish at all, although the systems that I asked for have certainly been created and are being used. It's very funny because we did a movie, Contagion—

We're all watching that movie now.

People say Contagion is prescient. We just saw the science. The whole epidemiological community has been warning everybody for the past 10 or 15 years that it wasn't a question of whether we were going to have a pandemic like this. It was simply when. It's really hard to get people to listen. I mean, Trump pushed out the admiral on the National Security Council, who was the only person at that level who's responsible for pandemic defence. With him went his entire down-line of employees and staff and relationships. And then Trump removed the [early warning] funding for countries around the world.

I've heard you talk about the significance that this is a “novel” virus.

It doesn't mean a fictitious virus. It’s not like a novel or a novella.

Too bad.

It means it's new. That there is no human being in the world that has immunity as a result of having had it before. That means it’s capable of infecting 7.8 billion of our brothers and sisters.

Since it's novel, we’re still learning about it. Do you believe that if someone gets it and recovers, that person thereafter has immunity?

So I don't see anything in this virus, even though it's novel, [that contradicts that]. There are cases where people think that they've gotten it again, [but] that's more likely to be a test failure than it is an actual reinfection. But there's going to be tens of millions of us or hundreds of millions of us or more who will get this virus before it's all over, and with large numbers like that, almost anything where you ask “Does this happen?” can happen. That doesn't mean that it is of public health or epidemiological importance.

Is this the worst outbreak you’ve ever seen?

It's the most dangerous pandemic in our lifetime.

We are being asked to do things, certainly, that never happened in my lifetime—stay in the house, stay 6 feet away from other people, don’t go to group gatherings. Are we getting the right advice?

Well, as you reach me, I'm pretending that I'm in a meditation retreat, but I'm actually being semi-quarantined in Marin County. Yes, this is very good advice. But did we get good advice from the president of the United States for the first 12 weeks? No. All we got were lies. Saying it’s fake, by saying this is a Democratic hoax. There are still people today who believe that, to their detriment. Speaking as a public health person, this is the most irresponsible act of an elected official that I've ever witnessed in my lifetime. But what you're hearing now [to self-isolate, close schools, cancel events] is right. Is it going to protect us completely? Is it going to make the world safe forever? No. It's a great thing because we want to spread out the disease over time.

Flatten the curve.

By slowing it down or flattening it, we're not going to decrease the total number of cases, we're going to postpone many cases, until we get a vaccine—which we will, because there's nothing in the virology that makes me frightened that we won’t get a vaccine in 12 to 18 months. Eventually, we will get to the epidemiologist gold ring.

What’s that?

That means, A, a large enough quantity of us have caught the disease and become immune. And B, we have a vaccine. The combination of A plus B is enough to create herd immunity, which is around 70 or 80 percent.

I hold out hope that we get an antiviral for Covid-19 that is curative, but in addition is prophylactic. It's certainly unproven and it's certainly controversial, and certainly a lot of people are not going to agree with me. But I offer as evidence two papers in 2005, one in Nature and one in Science. They both did mathematical modelling with influenza, to see whether saturation with just Tamiflu of an area around a case of influenza could stop the outbreak. And in both cases, it worked. I also offer as evidence the fact that at one point we thought HIV/AIDS was incurable and a death sentence. Then, some wonderful scientists discovered antiviral drugs, and we've learned that some of those drugs can be given prior to exposure and prevent the disease. Because of the intense interest in getting [Covid-19] conquered, we will put the scientific clout and money and resources behind finding antivirals that have prophylactic or preventive characteristics that can be used in addition to [vaccines].

When will we be able to leave the house and go back to work?

I have a very good retrospect-oscope, but what's needed right now as a prospecto-scope. If this were a tennis match, I would say advantage virus right now. But there's really good news from South Korea—they had less than 100 cases today. China had more cases imported than it had from continuous transmission from Wuhan today. The Chinese model will be very hard for us to follow. We're not going to be locking people up in their apartments, boarding them up. But the South Korea model is one that we could follow. Unfortunately, it requires doing the proportionate number of tests that they did—they did well over a quarter of a million tests. In fact, by the time South Korea had done 200,000 tests, we had probably done less than 1,000.

Now that we've missed the opportunity for early testing, is it too late for testing to make a difference?

Absolutely not. Tests would make a measurable difference. We should be doing a stochastic process random probability sample of the country to find out where the hell the virus really is. Because we don't know. Maybe Mississippi is reporting no cases because it's not looking. How would they know? Zimbabwe reports zero cases because they don't have testing capability, not because they don't have the virus. We need something that looks like a home pregnancy test, that you can do at home.

If you were the president for one day, what would you say in the daily briefing?

I would begin the press conference by saying "Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to Ron Klaine—he was the Ebola czar [under President Barack Obama], and now I’ve called him back and made him Covid czar. Everything will be centralized under one person who has the respect of both the public health community and the political community." We're a divided country right now. Right now, Tony Fauci [head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases] is the closest that we come to that.

Are you scared?

I'm in the age group that has a one in seven mortality rate if I get it. If you're not worried, you're not paying attention. But I'm not scared. I firmly believe that the steps that we're taking will extend the time that it takes for the virus to make the rounds. I think that, in turn, will increase the likelihood that we will have a vaccine or we will have a prophylactic antiviral in time to cut off, reduce, or truncate the spread. Everybody needs to remember: This is not a zombie apocalypse. It's not a mass extinction event.

Should we be wearing masks?

The N95 mask itself is extremely wonderful. The pores in the mask are three microns wide. The virus is one micron wide. So you get people who say, well, it's not going to work. But you try having three big, huge football players who are rushing for lunch through a door at lunchtime—they're not going to get through. In the latest data I saw, the mask provided 5x protection. That's really good. But we have to keep the hospitals going and we have to keep the health professionals able to come to work and be safe. So masks should go where they’re needed the most: in taking care of patients.

How will we know when we’re through this?

The world is not going to begin to look normal until three things have happened. One, we figure out whether the distribution of this virus looks like an iceberg, which is one-seventh above the water, or a pyramid, where we see everything. If we're only seeing right now one-seventh of the actual disease because we're not testing enough, and we're just blind to it, then we're in a world of hurt. Two, we have a treatment that works, a vaccine or antiviral. And three, maybe most important, we begin to see large numbers of people—in particular nurses, home health care providers, doctors, policemen, firemen, and teachers who have had the disease—are immune, and we have tested them to know that they are not infectious any longer. And we have a system that identifies them, either a concert wristband or a card with their photograph and some kind of a stamp on it. Then we can be comfortable sending our children back to school, because we know the teacher is not infectious. And instead of saying "No, you can't visit anybody in nursing home," we have a group of people who are certified that they work with elderly and vulnerable people, and nurses who can go back into the hospitals and dentists who can open your mouth and look in your mouth and not be giving you the virus. When those three things happen, that's when normalcy will return.

Is there in any way a brighter side to this?

Well, I'm a scientist, but I'm also a person of faith. And I can't ever look at something without asking the question of isn't there a higher power that in some way will help us to be the best version of ourselves that we could be? I thought we would see the equivalent of empty streets in the civic arena, but the amount of civic engagement is greater than I've ever seen. But I'm seeing young kids, millennials, who are volunteering to go take groceries to people who are homebound, elderly. I'm seeing an incredible influx of nurses, heroic nurses, who are coming and working many more hours than they worked before, doctors who fearlessly go into the hospital to work. I've never seen the kind of volunteerism I'm seeing.

I don't want to pretend that this is an exercise worth going through in order to get to that state. This is a really unprecedented and difficult time that will test us. When we do get through it, maybe like the Second World War, it will cause us to reexamine what has caused the fractional division we have in this country. The virus is an equal opportunity infector. And it’s probably the way we would be better if we saw ourselves that way, which is much more alike than different.