Editor’s Comments
这篇编者评论探讨了信息系统研究如何帮助社会增强应对疫情和极端事件的韧性，重点讨论了信息系统在公共卫生监测、组织转型和个人赋能中的作用。
Over 5 million individuals have been infected by the COVID-19 novel coronavirus with over 361,000 reported to have lost their lives as of this writing. 1 As the pandemic moved from east to west, societies were paused, borders were sealed, hospitals were overwhelmed, and economies nose-dived.Governments and lending agencies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are injecting trillions of dollars in stimulus funding to replace lost incomes and prevent economies from falling apart.No crisis has caused so much upheaval, so broadly, and so quickly.Confronted with existential threats and extraordinarily elevated economic uncertainty, the crisis has brought out the best in people.Frontline health professionals have put their lives at tremendous risk while working around the clock with make-shift personal protective equipment, with many making the ultimate sacrifice with their lives.Organizations quickly transitioned to remote work, and deployed crisis-inspired innovations in hours and days.Individuals, households, and communities coped with job loss and adapted to a surge in demands.Digital platforms and health agencies implemented novel methods and partnered to stem the infodemic related to COVID-19.The crisis has also exposed dark sides and weaknesses, ranging from digital inequity disproportionately inflicting hazards on blue-collar workers and technology "have nots," to life-costing awareness deficits, to lags in information flows crippling public health surveillance, to fragile supply chains, to a life-costing infodemic with fake news, hoaxes, and rumors.In this editorial, I share some thoughts on opportunities for IS research to contribute toward building resilience to pandemics and extreme events.I focus on the role of IS in redesigning public health surveillance systems, transforming organizations, and empowering individuals and communities.My comments are illustrative as clearly there are other aspects where IS can play a major role.