As we near this strange, constrained year’s end it’s a good time to take stock of our common welfare, climate and planet, our families and friends, ourselves.

Unfortunately, the year 2020 is and will be defined mostly by the ongoing, deadly coronavirus pandemic and the belated, haphazard response to it. Since its first appearance late in 2019, COVID-19 has destabilized nations and norms, shattered lives, torn up families, shuttered schools, and ruined livelihoods.

Even with vaccines slowly bec...