When I deliver lectures on pandemic ethics over Zoom as part of my job as a bioethicist, one of the questions I am asked with increasing frequency is whether I believe there will be any silver linings to COVID-19.

Answering this question in a manner that respects the deaths of half a million Americans proves challenging.

One does not need to be clairvoyant to recognize that the current pandemic may lead to significant changes, some for the better, in the way that we live and work.

For example, the mRNA technology ramped up for COVID-19 vaccines may also prove beneficial in treating autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis. The era of the transcontinental business trip is probably over, which may not please airlines, but is a relief for anyone who has ever spent 10 hours in transit to deliver a 30-minute presentation on the opposite coast. In the loss column, chalk up “snow days” and self-service buffet tables.

Will a year of social isolation and economic distress make us better or worse human beings? When we return to the proverbial “new normal,” will we enter the world with appreciation for the fragility of life and the welfare of our neighbors?

Will we donate more blood? Increase our charitable donations? Look in on our elderly neighbors with greater frequency? Or will our tribal instincts have rendered us more selfish and suspicious: a nation of xenophobic hermits who emerge periodically to brawl over toilet paper?

Researchers at Milan’s Bocconi University have analyzed survey data to show that the 1918 flu pandemic increased distrust among the children of survivors. Evidence from major earthquakes suggests that a poor government response to disaster exacerbates a decline in interpersonal trust.

The first step is asking the right question. To paraphrase President John F. Kennedy: Rather than wonder how the pandemic will generate technological and lifestyle windfalls for ourselves, we must ask what lessons from the pandemic we can harness to help others. Whether we are better or worse for COVID-19 is, at least in part, a verdict within our control.

We’re all facing a whole lot more unknowns than ever before. If all of that has taken a toll on your mental health, you’re not alone.

Jacob M. Appel is director of ethics education in psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.