Let's take just one example: healthcare. You could eradicate malaria – hell, you could attempt to cure all diseases. Let's say our aim is to protect humanity from the next pandemic, create a new field of human biology, transform the human experience by curing, preventing or treating all known diseases. If it sounds like I'm getting carried away, all these ideas are projects that scientists are thinking about and even working on, but are hampered by lack of resources.

The full impact of Covid-19 is still playing out. At the time of writing, more than 2 million people have died, while hundreds of millions have had their lives disrupted or economically ruined. The economic impact is at $2tn and rising. But the tragedy could have been even worse. Unchecked, coronavirus could have caused 40 million deaths in 2020, according to a report from the World Health Organization (WHO). The virus itself could have been more virulent, and more deadly, and the miserable fact is that just because we've had this coronavirus doesn't mean we can't get another, even worse, pandemic. Covid-19 has changed the world, and its tragedy will be felt for years, but we need to use it to raise awareness of the threat of pandemic diseases. It gives us an inkling of the threat to the world from the climate crisis. Our response to this pandemic shows we can adapt and change our lifestyles, and it shows that, when needed, governments can find money to spend – and particularly on public health projects.

We knew the risk posed by pandemics. The UK maintains a risk register, a catalogue and assessment of the emergencies that could befall the country, and top of the list, at the start of 2020, was an influenza pandemic. Large-scale exercises in 2007 (code-named Winter Willow) and 2016 (Cygnus) showed what might happen to the health service, the economy and the population if a 1918-style disease took hold. We knew what was at stake, and now we have firsthand experience.

In 2018, one disease infected 228 million people and killed about 405,000, mostly children under five, and mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. That disease, malaria, has been with us for ever. The disease has killed perhaps half of all humans who have ever lived. Malaria is the world's greatest scourge, but it is preventable and curable. In fact, we've done well: deaths from malaria have been halved in the past 20 years. But still it clings on and, if we're looking for projects to stretch us and create a genuine legacy, the defeat of humanity's most deadly enemy has a certain ring to it.