In 2020, a mere cluster of molecules shook the whole world. Smaller than can be seen by the naked eye, a very local virus unleashed with marked rapidity a global pandemic. Whatever will be proven to be its precise genesis, the coronavirus (COVID-19) and its mass casualties flourished in part thanks to our global milieu of deeper, broader inequalities within and between countries. It has been made far worse by austerity policies that weakened public infrastructure and public health systems; by international architecture enfeebled in form, function and leadership. And it has been made far worse under pressure from leaders of states who demonize and exclude, asserting archaic constructs of state sovereignty and peddling rejectionist approaches to science, evidence and universal norms. These are exceptional times. But have we risen to meet their challenge? Exceptional times oblige exceptional responses and demand exceptional leadership.