They both emphasize the importance of TESTING.
Not only does Agile emphasize testing, but one of the key differentiators between Agile and Waterfall is that Agile promotes continuous testing while Waterfall leaves testing for the end. In other words, the earlier you test, the better. Early testing allows for de-risking. When issues are caught early on, they can be addressed before they become insurmountable.
In the context of COVID-19, early testing leads to identification of those infected so they can be treated and prevent the spread to others. The countries that did not partake in early testing found it difficult to contain the spread. In some instances, their public health systems were completely overwhelmed.
As you can see, delaying (or ignoring) testing can have detrimental effects in Agile as well as COVID-19.
For the Agilists that are reading this blog post, you may be struggling to get your teams to buy into concepts like Test Driven Development (TDD). Try to draw parallels to the COVID-19 situation. While delayed testing in the context of some software applications may not lead to life or death situations, there is a price to pay in terms of frustration, wasted effort, poor quality, time-to-market, and others.
For health care professionals that are reading this blog post, we appreciate your efforts and sincerely thank you. Even though some people may not see the relevance of testing, please know that there are many of us in the tech community that do.