Coronavirus is exploiting an underlying condition: our epidemic of insecurity

As the global Covid-19 pandemic bears down on cities and towns across the country and the world, municipal and state leaders are scrambling to mitigate the spread and “flatten the curve”. To be sure, these social distancing interventions, including closing schools, eliminating mass gatherings – even shuttering small businesses – are necessary right now. Yet policymakers have been reticent to fully enact them because of the sweeping economic and social consequences they’ll have for so many in our society.

Yet the very position in which we find ourselves – caught...