MALE HOST: There's a reason coronavirus doesn't infect polar bears.

(Describer) One sits on ice.

To this virus, a polar bear is a dead end. But humans aren't polar bears. We're not that big. We don't have fangs, claws, armor, or venom. It is our species who has dominated life on Earth,

(Describer) ...like cavemen.

because humanity is at its best when we band together. Our social nature is what made us, what made you. It's why we exist. It's why we're still here. These chains of connection are why we laugh and cry and teach and learn. They helped our ancestors find food, raise their children, make tools, build civilizations. But in this world full of sickness, the same chains that connect us also leave us vulnerable, because these infinitesimally small enemies only seek to take another step, and another, and another.

(Describer) ...to spread.

So to save ourselves, we untie these chains.

(Describer) Crowds disappear from a sidewalk. A classroom is empty. A park has no people. A stadium is deserted.

[DRAMATIC MUSIC]

[CRICKETS]

[CROW CALLS]

And with each chain broken, with every bit of social distance, we can prevent infection exponentially, untold pain, fear, and death avoided. To our ancestors, loneliness meant almost certain death, and they passed this evolutionary lesson to us. Loneliness triggers alarms brain chemicals that push us to fight or flee. Hiding away can cause us actual pain.

(Describer) People in masks work in a lab.

But there's something we can do that the sickness can not do that makes our species so special. We can learn. We use our tools to study it. Where it hurts us, we heal each other. And what we learn, we teach. For our species has no greater advantage than the sharing of knowledge. And we have built other chains of connection where the sickness cannot set foot.

(Describer) ...around the world.

Our connection is not weakness. It's our strength. Because when the virus is lonely, it dies. We won't be sick forever, and one day, when we reconnect our chains, when the virus is gone, our humanity will ensure that we are still here.

(Describer) People gather again.

Stay curious.

(Describer) Accessibility provided by the US Department of Education.