Here is where technology comes in. Consider temperature checks: Frictionless, non-contact temperature-check technology can monitor public areas, workplaces, or even busy households for elevated body temperature — stepping into the epidemiological gap otherwise filled by social distancing and masking. This easy and non-invasive system detects a key sign of viral infection, often before an individual notices it in themselves. This solution maintains the visibility of illness and potential risks of spread for the employer and the employee, even as COVID-19 recedes as a motivating force in American life. The effects would be tremendous. Consider, again, the seasonal flu. Most sufferers of influenza run a fever, with 103-104 Fahrenheit temperatures common: easily detected, long before reaching that stage, by contactless thermography. Imagine its widespread use, in conjunction with workplace stay-at-home practices, in the 2018-2019 flu season. That season in America saw an estimated 35.5 million flu infections, 490,600 hospitalizations, and 34,200 deaths. Based on the experience of the 2020-2021 flu season’s disappearance, we could expect that the overwhelming supermajority of those prior season’s illnesses and deaths would have been prevented. Think of it: most of those 35.5 million infections prevented, most of those 490,600 hospitalizations precluded, and most important, most of those 34,200 Americans still alive and with us.