By early February 2020, both Moderna and BioNTech had batches ready to move through the traditional, phased clinical testing process.

It can be difficult to lean into uncertainty with curiosity, rather than judgment, especially when the “What if?” questions that must be asked challenge your political, religious, or philosophical orientations.

Before the sixteenth century, there were no peanuts in Africa, and no tomatoes in Italy. There was no wheat in North America before the Columbian Exchange. It radically transformed agriculture, changed diets (of people and animals alike), and reshaped lives and cultures.

We all make decisions based on our own personal constructs, and our mental models can be dangerous: we selectively interpret evidence, intermingle data with dubious assumptions, and listen for signals that confirm our existing biases.

If we encourage “What if?” questions today, we can avoid “What now?” questions in the future.