Opinion | How Will Tech Help in a Time of Pandemic?

On an overnight flight this week from Washington to San Francisco, the man seated next to me started by painstakingly cleaning all of the surfaces around us with alcohol wipes. He then donned an N95 respirator face mask that had a Space Invaders pattern on it.

“People gave me dirty looks on my last flight, so I hope you don’t mind,” he said in a muffled voice with a hint of embarrassment. “But, you know. …”

I did not mind at all. And, yes, I do know.

In the wake of the global spread of the new coronavirus, I can give you 1.7 trillion reasons that you might want to pay attention to Zoom Video Communications and companies like it.

That big number is the dollar value lost in the stock market just Monday and Tuesday on investor fears of the proliferation of the virus. There have been more than 82,000 cases in four dozen countries and more than 2,800 deaths. Italy, Iran and China have initiated quarantines and restricted travel.

The human cost, of course, should be our most important concern. But the impact on supply chains originating in China is also a serious matter. That explains why tech stocks — after being at the forefront of the huge run-up in the markets over the last few years — have lost significant value since mid-February. Apple has dropped from $327 a share to $274, Alphabet from $1,517 to $1,315, Facebook from $217 to $190, Microsoft from $187 to $158.

But not Zoom, whose shares have risen more than 60 percent over the last month, to $114 a share, or close to a $30 billion valuation. Why the boom, given the company’s profits have been pretty modest? Wall Street is expecting it to show about $175 million in revenue for the latest quarter when it reports its results next week.

Three letters: WFH.

That’s “work from home.” Zoom makes popular software that allows users to conduct video-conference meetings from different locations. Thus, in a time of restricted business travel and increasing pressure on companies, schools and other public gathering places to put epidemic plans in place, digital companies like Zoom are likely to benefit.

Zoom is just one such company — and its recent bounce focuses attention on telework, a way of working that has been growing in recent years, albeit more slowly than the technologies that facilitate it.

In 2003, with the last big similar outbreak (SARS, also a coronavirus), the tech tools for remote communication and collaboration were in their early days. There was no Facebook, no Twitter, no Slack and, perhaps most important, no iPhone (and therefore no apps).

There were laptops and more basic mobile phones back then. But working, being entertained and shopping from home were still difficult and rare. And even though more companies now allow employees to work from home, and more employees are taking advantage of that opportunity, the idea that workers need to be present at one office location in their analog bodies has remained quite persistent.

This is despite the obvious and sometimes dispiriting trend toward living in a fully digital world. Along with the isolation and separation it brings, digital life has resulted in more social and political polarization for many people. In a recent interview about his book, “Why We’re Polarized,” the journalist Ezra Klein noted that social media “has been a polarization accelerant. In the coming years it may prove a primary driver.”

That’s become abundantly clear. But can tech also prove to be a positive force in this health crisis, rather than the relentless drag it has become? That idea was certainly pushed this week by Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as she tried to outline what to expect as the coronavirus spreads in the United States.

While she warned of the need to prepare for a “significant disruption of our lives,” Dr. Messonnier used words like teleworking and teleschooling to describe what might have to happen in the worst-case scenario.

It’s too early to know if we need to resort to this kind of behavior on a widespread and prolonged level, but it will be instructive to see how well business and other analog activities can continue to operate in a digital world during a crisis.

Will there be robust teleconferences to replace the real-life ones that are canceled? On Thursday, Facebook canceled its annual developer conference, scheduled for May, due to fears over the virus. Will Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s chief executive, instead broadcast a presentation on Facebook Live?

Will there be even more investment in technologies like virtual reality and holographic telepresence — two interesting arenas that have been growing more slowly than expected? Will this send the consumer trend toward delivery on-demand into overdrive, further hollowing out the retail and restaurant sectors?

We’ll have to see. There’s no question that the adoption of new technology would make living in this crisis a little easier. But better communications tools do not let our government off the hook for being prepared for a world in which Mother Nature can stop the hopelessly interconnected and always-moving human race cold anytime she wants.

And she has.

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