The best memes and GIFs are usually the ones that contain more than a kernel of truth. One of my favourites that went viral on WhatsApp groups over the past month featured a scientist asking the world's reporters to turn to footballers for a COVID-19 cure. She said this because we all know about the millions paid to sportspeople for endorsing a particular brand of shoes, and the pittance that scientists the world over have to rely on when it comes to saving lives.

These lessons cropped up time and again, on our respective timelines, as cities continued to shut down. There were videos of people stepping onto their balconies in Spain to applaud their nurses and healthcare workers. There was that photograph of an exhausted doctor asleep on a stretcher after the last patient had been wheeled out of an emergency room. There were the thousands of medical support staff waving goodbye to their partners and children and walking into hospitals while the rest of us were tasked with simply staying indoors.