Numbers

250 071…14792… 

refresh 291325...15653…  

refresh.. 621 592...28 791 

With every refresh the numbers change, numbers going up like an unprecedented good day on Wall street.  

We’re bombarded with ‘numbers’ every day, all day, it’s easy to forget what they stand for; 42 average age, Dow went up/down 7 points, one third of the world’s population lives like this, one in every this is that… numbers, numbers all the time.  

But somehow today it doesn’t feel like just numbers; with every refresh that number could be my friend’s 82 year-old aunt in Tuscany, the one who use to give me vino santo with biscotti; it could be my 62 year-old neighbour in Paris, whose dog I sometimes walk… it could be my mom, the only parent I have left... it could be my 30-something year old best friend, it could be the stranger I just crossed on the street...it could even be me.  I know how selfish it is to only see that now that these numbers affect my life, but that is sadly how it goes sometimes.

And then of course, with every number, there are all kinds of hidden variables, all kinds of X’s and Y’s that don't show up in this 'refreshed' algorithm; X’s in white overcoats trying to do what they swore to do, Y’s who worried, waited, prayed and cried...X’s and Y’s that were all hoping for another outcome and whose lives are undoubtedly altered forever. 

Millions get the flu every year, and thousands die from it on a regular basis; at GSK we made over 90MIL doses for the flu every year.  Those were numbers and I didn’t really stop to think about then, except that the production line has to be up and running in time for the flu-peak; but now everything seems different.

Two months ago it was in China and ‘far’, one month ago it was in Italy but still we didn’t really get it, two weeks ago I was buying a new outfit at Abercrombie on the Champs Élysées, I had friends going to ‘corona’ parties, and today I’m in Ghent, ‘confined’ and watching it all unfold like a sci fi movie in which, luckily, I have for now only been an extra on the sidelines. 

I can’t help but wonder what life will be after this? Will we remember these numbers and the struggles that went with them?  Will we unite to change or prevent their outcome?  Or will they just become distant statistics and number for new production lines? Or maybe an excuse for something altogether different. 

One of my favourite authors wrote this article last week (https://www.ft.com/content/19d90308-6858-11ea-a3c9-1fe6fedcca75), something to think about.