Pre-Existing Conditions
April 21, 2021, 5am PDT | Dan Kaplan
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As the vaccine rolls out and we emerge from social distancing and suspended animation to survey the wreckage, it would be a mistake to return to "normal." The pandemic has brought into sharp relief social inequalities and environmental vulnerabilities in our cities; both are in deep need of repair and reimagination. Rebecca Traister, writing about another (and related) calamity—the storming of the Capitol—wrote "we must steer straight toward the kinds of mechanisms that are this calamity's direct and robust inverse: toward strengthening and empowering a populace, toward a governance that prioritizes dignity and care and safety and security for everyone, not just the already powerful."