I do not wish to add to all the opinions and reports about Coronavirus you might have read. The amount of information and misinformation has been overwhelming and you might be, understandably, quite sick of it (excuse the pun).

Nor do I want to fan the flames of anxiety. It is clear that, on the whole, our response to a crisis of such magnitude has been inadequate and that in a globalised world, we need a properly co-ordinated action on a global level.

Viruses don’t respect borders. We – by “we”, I mean people of all nationalities, not just us here in Britain – have been so successful at combating diseases, that used to plague humanity for thousands of years, that we may have become too complacent about preparing for a global pandemic. Only time will tell which country’s approach to containing the virus has been right and should be followed in the future.

But it strikes me that this crisis presents an opportunity to learn some big lessons that go beyond public health, and, as lofty as it sounds, it could mark the beginning of profound and positive changes in the way we live. I have written about loneliness and its dangers before, but I’m broaching the subject again because if isolation was a rapidly growing concern then, the pandemic has made all too clear that we can no longer put off dealing with it.

We urgently need to re-think how, as a society, we look after the most vulnerable and those who can’t rely on relatives for their health and wellbeing needs. There is no single solution, but now is the time to confront perhaps the most difficult aspect of it: affordability and quality of housing. By all accounts, most modern housing is antithetical to fostering the sense of community. Some commentators raised this issue in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, calling for more comfortable and home-like public housing.

We need many more projects like environmentally and socially conscious Goldsmith Street in Norwich, which won RIBA Stirling Prize last year. Such developments have become a rare breed: terraced homes built directly by the council, rented with secure tenancies at fixed social rents. Architects who designed Goldsmith Street wanted to create an entire neighbourhood, not simply, as is usually done, slabs of apartment blocks, built with the sole purpose of making a profit. People who live in well-designed spaces care about them and tend to forge good relationships with their neighbours.

Hundreds of millions of pounds are wasted every year because old people needlessly linger in hospitals for weeks, even months. A pandemic is going to exacerbate this problem, which is, again, partly due to prohibitively high cost of accommodation: our best care homes tend to be very expensive. We need to divert some of that wasted cash into building care homes, that are not only affordable, but also better, more imaginatively designed.

Why not learn from the Dutch, who offer students rent-free accommodation in exchange for befriending elderly residents? It has proven to benefit both the young and the old.

We hear the phrase: “Lessons will be learnt” whenever a calamity strikes. Let’s hope this time it won’t be an empty promise.