We are now in the second stage of the COVID-19 pandemic in North
America.
In the first stage, citizens, governments and businesses took
comprehensive yet remarkably nimble action once the COVID-19
outbreak was declared to be a pandemic.
Corporate boards acted quickly to protect their work force and
cut corporate spending to protect their balance sheets. Previously
unheard-of levels of government fiscal and monetary interventions
were implemented with alacrity. Unprecedented restrictions on
individual liberties have been almost uniformly adopted and
accepted, recognizing public health as the foremost priority.
Governments that intervened quickly successfully flattened the
infection curve. Our healthcare systems have continued to function
and mortality has thankfully not risen to projected levels. Yet the
virus continues to spread, and the reality has set in that this is
not an acute, momentary crisis that will disappear as quickly as it
arrived; rather, it is a
