Nobody asked for a pandemic.
But when the masks ran out in Switzerland, something interesting happened. Not a government program. Not a corporate initiative. A daughter sent an email to her father. A father called in a favor. A friend reached out to a doctor. A doctor remembered a paper he’d co-authored years ago. And a designer in Singapore offered to ship samples by DHL.
Six people who had never been in the same room, across four countries, pulling a thread.
This is what tribes do. Not because there’s a contract. Not because someone put up a bounty. Because someone they trusted said this matters, and they chose to show up.
Charles Gomersall didn’t have N95 masks. He had something more valuable — he had knowledge, and he had a connection. Francis didn’t have a certified medical device. He had something that might help, and he had the generosity to offer it anyway, honestly, including the limitations.
Notice what didn’t happen: nobody waited for permission. Nobody said “that’s not my department.”
The internet gets blamed for a lot. But in March 2020, it carried a chain of human decency from Hong Kong to Singapore to Fribourg.
The masks may or may not have arrived. That’s almost not the point.
The point is: when it was their turn to pass the baton, they passed it.
Will you?