Ask a child for his or her favorite hero and you’re likely to hear Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Black Panther, the Hulk, Elsa, Leia, or Harry Potter. Maybe someone else.

Ask an adult for his or her favorite hero and you’re likely to hear the same.

Once a hero, always a hero.

The pandemic introduced a new crop of heroes. They don’t wear capes and they don’t have superhuman strengths but they stand united in their willingness and passion to get the job done.

I saw a sign during a recent neighborhood walk.

I used to see these thank you signs everywhere during the initial weeks of the pandemic when nearly everyone stayed home.

Now that the economy is reopening and non-essential workers are returning to their workplaces, there are less signs and less universal awareness of our pandemic heroes.

First responders and healthcare workers are continually thanked.

What about postal workers, bank employees, grocery staff, and delivery drivers? What of school teachers, nannies, food prep workers, and janitors?

I want to believe that everyone listed, and everyone who should be listed, is (still) a hero and worthy of our continued honor and appreciation. I want to believe that their essential contribution to society is more relevant today than yesterday.

It’s great that California pledged support to essential workers, and that Massachusetts sued rideshare companies for its drivers to be classified as employees. I want to see other feel-good stories pop up around the U.S. and the world as government leaders treat essential heroes with respect. The White House should bail out child care, for instance, to the same intensity as it gave billions to airlines. Child care workers are also heroes.

If we remove heroes from the list, we begin to accept a life without a killer coronavirus. We can’t back down. We have to remain as vigilant today as we did during the early days. We must protect our heroes so that they remain heroes until we don’t need them anymore.

“People have their opinion about my reaction to things. I consider myself more a realist than an alarmist,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci on CNN.

I know what he means. I’m also a realist. I accept life for what it is.

To me, the glass is neither half-full nor half-empty; instead, the glass is merely filled with water and it probably tastes refreshing. I believe that my actions and perceptions are based on the sum of my experiences. If I can’t use my own resources to solve a problem, then I assume the problem cannot be solved. (That rarely occurs as I find solutions to nearly everything.)

Political scientists affirm that realism plays a part in pandemic survival.

“The virus quickly spread across the globe through all levels and sectors of society from nursing homes to aircraft carriers. The pandemic has truly left no place to hide, though sheltering in place has been one attempt to do so.”

“Perhaps it is not surprising that realism now is benefitting from a revival of sorts: first, as a response to the conditions of global complexity and precarity that preceded and contributed to the COVID-19 crisis, and now to the crisis itself.”

– E-International Relations, June 2020

It can be argued that the only way for a country, state, or community to protect its citizenry and defeat the virus is through self-reliance, a key tenet of realism.

“How states responded and continue to respond to the pandemic turned out to be textbook realism. While occasionally paying lip service to regional and international cooperation, the defining characteristic… has been self-help. This is evident from militarization of borders, to the quest for artificial respirators.”

– The Jerusalem Post, March 2020

As government mandates and business guidelines are enacted on the importance of wearing masks, the benefits of social distancing, the hygiene of hand washing, and other science-based measures to fight the virus, I don’t think it’s helpful to be overly optimistic or pessimistic.

Either you accept the science and believe people who share scientific evidence — or you don’t believe them. If the latter, please be safe.

Dr. Miles Cobia, a neurologist in Alabama, tweeted that he and his pregnant wife, also a physician, were tested positive with COVID-19. Their 2-year-old daughter is symptomatic and is probably also positive.

The husband and wife physicians worked in a hospital. They always wore masks and used personal protective equipment.

After visiting with extended family at a secluded lake last weekend, 8 of 11 family members (though everyone wasn’t present at the same time) were tested positive. Five of the 11 are healthcare workers.

Cobia tweeted:

“We did not mask while visiting with family because we let our guard down and thought we were safe. Every one of those positive have symptoms from congestion, headache, fever, malaise, myalgia, and anosmia.”

Cobia wrote that two of the positive cases are toddlers.

He added:

“My family had been largely working from home and we thought we would be safe. We were wrong.”

His story is our story.

In our war with the coronavirus, we must be vigilant. We must be careful. We must assume that if we let our guard down for just a moment and for whatever reason, we risk infection.

Mask wearing is getting a lot of attention. Some people feel that their personal liberties are taken away. Some people feel that masks should not be government mandated. Some people forget to follow the protocol.

But here’s the thing: While masks are not a panacea, they are essential for our survival — especially if we are with people who we don’t see on a regular basis. Keep in mind that if you and I are in the same space, I wear a mask to protect you; and you, hopefully, wear a mask to protect me. And even if we wear masks, we should still keep 3-6 feet away from each other.

Dr. Cobia admits he let his guard down. He’s human. The takeaway is that we must remember the essential pandemic behaviors that have been drilled into us over and over: Wear a mask. Keep physical distance. Wash your hands with soap. Cough into an elbow (or into your mask). Stay home if you don’t need to go out.

I don’t know how the pandemic will end, but I believe we can defeat the virus. We have to want it.

Pandemic is defined, according to Merriam-Webster, as:

“an outbreak of a disease that occurs over a wide geographic area and affects an exceptionally high proportion of the population”

This is the noun. There’s also an adjective which I never considered using but I digress.

Looking back at five pandemics in history — the Plague of Justinian, the Black Death, the Great Plague of London, smallpox, and cholera — vaccination did not exist for the first three. In those instances, sick people were avoided or isolated. Smallpox was eradicated after 200 years of vaccines. Cholera still exists but was mostly wiped out through access to clean drinking water and improved sewage treatment.

Which brings us to the current pandemic. Over 150 vaccines are being developed to combat COVID-19. Healthcare experts suggest clinical trials and regulatory approvals won’t be finalized until the second half of 2021.

Unfortunately, vaccines may not end the pandemic — because surveys continue to indicate that 25-50% of the U.S. population will refuse vaccination.

One of the latest is a survey of 1,267 Americans, conducted by Tufts University, indicating that 57% are willing to receive a vaccine, 18% are opposed, and 24% don’t know. (By the way, there is fascinating data in that survey about race, income, and education inequities about vaccination.)

An earlier Pew survey of 10,957 Americans indicated 72% would take a vaccine if it was offered today.

I don’t know why there’s a divergence between the two polls, as they’re both representative, but I don’t think one is any less valid than the other.

One of the reasons why people are skeptical about vaccines (evidenced by perusing Facebook comments, such as on this Southwest Florida TV station page) is because of potential side effects.

This could be assuaged with education.

“In a small clinical trial with the kinds of platforms that are being examined here for COVID-19, you rarely see severe reactions,” says Wayne Koff, president and CEO of the Human Vaccines Project, a public-private partnership that seeks to accelerate vaccine development. Adults and children receive millions of doses of approved vaccines each year across the world, and severe reactions are extremely rare.

– National Geographic, June 30, 2020

When you think about the millions (billions?) of dollars spent on the global race to create vaccines, and if even 25% are unwilling to get the vaccine and therefore not help to eradicate the pandemic, I wonder if the pandemic will ever end.

From the workplace to education to music concerts to more, here are seven predictions about our post-pandemic life from expert sources.

1. Work:

Gartner suggests nine workplace trends that could change after the pandemic, such as humanizing employees.

While some organizations have recognized the humanitarian crisis of the pandemic and prioritized the well-being of employees as people over employees as workers, others have pushed employees to work in conditions that are high risk with little support — treating them as workers first and people second.

Be deliberate in which approach you take and be mindful of the effects on employee experience, which will be long-lasting. Address inequities if remote and on-site employees have been treated differently. Engage task workers in team culture and create a culture of inclusiveness.

2. Education:

The World Economic Forum suggests education will be reshaped in three ways, including public-private partnerships.

From Microsoft and Google in the U.S. to Samsung in Korea to Tencent, Ping An, and Alibaba in China, corporations are awakening to the strategic imperative of an educated populace. While most initiatives to date have been limited in scope, and relatively isolated, the pandemic could pave the way for much larger-scale, cross-industry coalitions to be formed around a common educational goal.

3. Travel:

ForeignPolicy.com asked seven experts for their post-pandemic travel predictions. Rolf Potts, the travel essayist, thinks there will be less desire to visit popular places.

A constant source of travel headlines in recent years has been tourist overcrowding in places such as Venice and Bali, and I doubt the desire to go to so-called hot spots or top-ten-list destinations will drive the next wave of travel. It will be the desire simply to go, and to figure things out along the journey. Think road trip or backpacking adventure, not package tour.

4. Libraries:

Librarians chime in about curbside pickups, access to online resources, how many libraries existed during the 1918 pandemic, and how some institutions are bringing back the telephone.

Realizing that many seniors who showed up in person at the libraries aren’t comfortable moving online, Anything Libraries, a district of seven libraries in Adams County, Colorado, have staffed up their midday hours to man a telephone call center. Users can call to “just say hi” or talk about what’s on their minds. The message the library wants to convey even during the pandemic, according to the director Pam Smith: “We are here for you.”

5. College Sports:

This prediction is about revenue (or, the lack of it). A recent survey of athletic directors indicates that 86% believe the future is bleak.

All of it hints at a possible future that includes cutting sports, slashing salaries, laying off staff, and weighing ability to fully funding existing sports if finances become too tight.

6. Music Concerts:

Written in May 2020, this prediction by industry professionals is that music concerts will return to pre-pandemic levels in 18-24 months.

Toby Mamis, a longtime management representative for Alice Cooper, says “I don’t think anyone knows what the ‘new normal’ will be, and anyone who says they do, really doesn’t. General admission standing shows? Reserved seats three or four feet apart in alternative rows? Restrooms? Lines to get in? The economic models are challenging to say the least.”

7. Quiet:

In this fascinating BBC report, the pandemic ushered in a respect for silence and there’s a growing trend that access to solitude should be a human right.

“I think when everything goes back to ‘normal’ there will have been this new precedent set – a benchmark of what quiet is possible, and a new perception of our soundscape… Most people know constant stimulus is not good for your health. But then most authorities see noise as something that can only be mitigated by spending a lot of money. And the argument is always that noise is the product of activity that brings money to a community. The cost to quality of life is overlooked.”

– Erica Walker, postdoctoral researcher at Boston University’s School of Public Health and founder of Noise and the City, a campaign organisation studying urban noise levels