Of the metaphors circulating in the media to describe the Covid-19 pandemic, the one I find most helpful deploys the image that the whole world is experiencing the same storm, but groups of us are in very different kinds of boats trying to weather it.

It’s almost impossible to go a day without stumbling upon an article, podcast or media interview that makes an explicit comparison between Covid-19 and a pandemic in history. Yet, the one-size-fits-all comparisons don’t work in most cases.