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Q&A: Dr. Heather Johnson on How Our Feelings About Math Shape Our Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic
Keeping distance from people on a day to day basis is new. I understand how long 6 feet is. It’s different from getting a feel for what keeping a 6 feet distance means. To keep our distance, we have to pay attention to people around us. It adds one more thing in a time when everyone is dealing with so much.
There are times when you need to rely on your friends to help you navigate a pandemic. Fortunately for me, I have some good friends from high school — including one who is a Ph.D mathematician and one who is a MD physician. They are also good friends with one another. Pretty handy when plague sweeps the land. I’m sure I have other high school friends with great insight into pandemics — feel free to reach out to me. Let’s help one another.
Dr. Johnson — or Heather as I know her — is super smart and really engaging on Twitter. We had math together in high school for four years (Algebra II, Geometry, Trigonometry, and Calculus) and I’m quite fortunate that she continues to educate me on math topics. As I’ve been trying to educate myself on the pandemic and lift up the Pgh masQue ProjecT, I realize how important math can be to help us understand this horrible experience (and the world.)
