Here is an excerpt from this blog post by Gretchen L. Schmelzer, PhD.
Imagine if we could make our response to this crisis our finest hour. Imagine if a year or two from now we looked back on this and told the stories of how we came together as a team in our community, in our state, in our nation and across the world. Your contribution to the finest hour may seem small, invisible, inconsequential—but every small act of ‘not doing’ what you were going to do, and ‘doing’ an act of kindness or support will add up exponentially. These acts can and will save lives. The Apollo 13 crew made it their finest hour by letting go of the word “I” and embracing the word “we.” And that’s the task required of us. It can only be our finest hour if we work together. You are all on the team. And we need all of you to shine in whatever way you can.
Grassroots groups are springing up where people can offer and ask for help from their neighbors. This list includes groups by state in the U.S., as well as several in Canada, Britain, and Germany. Some call it “care-mongering” and people are giving away food, offering to foster animals, and picking up medication for others. Meanwhile, in the U.K., a woman designed a postcard that you can drop off with neighbors who are self-isolating, offering your help with shopping or a friendly phone call.
Yo-Yo Ma, one of the world’s most renowned and beloved musicians, is trying to provide comfort in this time of crisis with #songsofcomfort.
Amid the lockdown, French residents (and in other countries) organized on social media to applaud healthcare workers from their balconies, thanking doctors and nurses fighting the coronavirus outbreak.
Read about acts of kindness UN staff are performing in their neighborhoods.
The doctors, nurses, and other first responders on the front lines are expressing desperate gratitude for the medical supplies being donated by people who pretend they're doctors and nurses. TV Medical Dramas Donate Their Masks, Medical Supplies to Hospitals in Need During Pandemic.
The US has invoked war-scale manufacturing. In the meantime, hospital workers battling coronavirus turn to bandanas, sports goggles and homemade face shields amid shortages.
"Someone left two boxes of masks on my doorstep. I will make them last; I'll spray each one with alcohol and keep using it until it breaks down. We're really improvising here." Doctors and Nurses Plead for Masks on Social Media.
And if medical workers don't have protective gear, think about cops, grocers, deliverers, and on down the line. The Marshall Project: DC Cops Balance Bravado and Caution During COVID-19 Pandemic.
Spirits distilleries around the US now producing hand sanitizer.
How SF neighborhoods are helping each other during the coronavirus shelter-in-place order.