I think that telling the millions of people living in poverty -- many of whom still have to go into the world and work in the face of great risks, others who will be out of work and struggling to feed their families -- that this is an opportunity for them to be like Isaac Newton is pretty tone deaf. A statement like this only works if you are only talking to people who have the privilege of a safety net.

There are approximately 40 million US citizens living in poverty. Try going to their houses and telling them that Isaac Newton invented calculus during the plague, so they should look at this as an opportunity for them to learn a foreign language or program an app. You might want to plan an escape route before you do so, though.