Jack Dorsey, the CEO and cofounder of Twitter and Square, has announced plans to donate $1 billion to fight the coronavirus outbreak. This is the largest pledged gift by a private individual yet during the pandemic.

He will contribute roughly 30 percent of his estimated net worth. He notes that all of his gift’s donations will be tracked through a public Google Sheet. 

Dorsey explains the timing of his commitment: “The needs are increasingly urgent, and I want to see the impact in my lifetime. I hope this inspires others to do something similar. Life is too short, so let’s do everything we can today to help people now.” 

Trumpet concerts from 200 feet in the air 

There is other good news in the news today: a disc jockey in Philadelphia made thirty-two food deliveries in seven days to healthcare workers on the front lines of the pandemic, supporting small businesses in the process. A firefighter in Rio de Janeiro is using a retractable fire truck ladder to play trumpet concerts from two hundred feet in the air for sheltering residents. 

Geico has announced a 15 percent auto insurance credit worth billions of dollars because its customers are driving less. A math teacher in Maryland ran 102 miles in 21 hours to raise support for a local food bank. 

But there’s bad news in the news, of course. As of this morning, there are nearly 1.5 million confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide, with more than 88,000 deaths. 

Nearly twice as many people in New York City have died of COVID-19 as perished on 9/11. Due to stay-at-home orders, pornography use is up, as is domestic violence and alcohol use and abuse. And in a reminder that we were broken people before the pandemic struck, the CDC reports that suicides in the US have increased 35 percent since 1999. 

Washing the feet of…