Summary of COVID-19 Pandemic (January 2020-April 2021)
On Wednesday, January 22nd, 2020, The Washington Post reporters Lena H. Sun and Lenny Bernstein reported on the first documented case of COVID-19 found in the United States. The patient was a man in Washington state who had recently returned from a trip to Wuhan, China, where COVID-19 originated. The next day, January 23rd, the Chinese government would place the city of Wuhan, China under lockdown. Over 11 million people were ordered to stay at home and travel to and within the city was barred. On January 26th, the second potential case of COVID-19 in the United States was documented in Texas. As the virus continued to spread throughout the United States and the world, the global stock market began to crash as fears about COVID-19’s impact on international economies grew. On January 30th, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a “public health emergency.” Soon after, the United States government declared the virus a public health emergency and issued a “do not travel” advisory.
On Saturday, February 8th, 2020, the New York Post published an article by Laura Italiano reporting that the first U.S. citizen to die of COVID-19 has passed away abroad in China. As February wears on, there was an increase in hate crimes against those of Asian descent as they are associated with the spread of the virus. Many refer to COVID-19 using racist and blame-laden words like “Chinese Virus” and “Wuhan Flu.” As the United States scrambled to cope with the spreading virus, many continued to downplay the threat the virus poses in order to avoid inciting public panic. However, public anxiety could not be quelled, resulting in, among other things, large amounts of panic buying. A popular purchase for these panic buyers was toilet paper. On February 26th, 2020, President Donald Trump placed Vice President Mike Pence in charge of leading virus response efforts.
On Sunday, March 1st, 2020, The Washington Post published an article by Paul Schemm entitled “First coronavirus deaths confirmed in U.S., Australia and Thailand; health officials probe possible outbreak at Washington nursing home.” The article reported on the first COVID-19 related death to occur within the United States. By March 3rd, 2020, the White House had reported that free COVID-19 testing was available to all within the U.S. However, COVID-19 testing would remain scarce. On March 5th, 2020, the Senate passed an 8.2 billion dollar virus response budget. On March 11th, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 to be a global pandemic, causing the U.S. to officially restrict travel from Europe. By March 12th, 2020, over one hundred colleges and universities in the U.S. had canceled classes and sent students home. Soon, public school systems across the country did the same. On March 14th, 2020, the U.S. declared the COVID-19 pandemic a national emergency and passed a fifty billion dollar aid bill. On March 16th, 2020, New York City was placed under a lockdown order, closing schools, bars, and restaurants. On March 17th, 2020, the U.S. COVID-19 death toll would pass one hundred. At the same time, many newspapers and officials reported that medical masks wouldn’t help to protect individuals against the virus. In just a few weeks, these statements would be walked back and the country would be encouraged to wear masks when they went out into public. Officials would explain that the reason they had initially cautioned the public against wearing masks was to try and prevent a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers. However, by March 20th, 2020, it was already being reported that hospitals were massively understocked with PPE, and these shortages began to put pressure on healthcare workers nationwide. Nearing the end of March, one in five Americans was subject to a stay-at-home order, and all were encouraged to only leave their homes in order to perform essential tasks. Only those declared “essential workers” were allowed to work. By March 27th, 2020, the Senate had approved yet another virus response bill, this one allotting two trillion dollars to provide economic stimulus and aid in the fight against COVID-19. Simultaneously, the U.S. COVID-19 death toll topped one thousand people. Hospitals, already battling PPE and vent shortages, were overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients.
By the beginning of April 2020, COVID-19 had spread across the United States at an overwhelming rate. By April 2nd, 2020, the U.S. COVID-19 death toll had reached one thousand deaths per day. At this time, the White House recommended that all Americans wear masks. As the economy continued to struggle under restrictions necessitated by the pandemic and the stock market fell, over 10 million Americans lost their jobs. At this time, many criticized the U.S. government’s response to COVID-19. Many felt that the government’s response failed to address or prevent the spread of COVID-19 in any meaningful way. By April 25th, 2020, Georgia, Alaska, and Oklahoma began to reopen non-essential businesses despite rising rates of death and infection. As these states began to reopen, COVID-19 testing still remained difficult to obtain. By the end of May, many under lockdown began to tire of the isolation and joblessness. On May 27th, The Atlantic published an article by Graeme Wood entitled “What’s behind the COVID-19 racial disparity.” The article sought to explain why COVID-19 was disproportionately impacting Black Americans. The answer The Atlantic provides is, essentially, that they don’t know.
On June 11th, 2020, The Washington Post published an article entitled “U.S. surpasses 2 million coronavirus cases.” By the end of June, the first known COVID-19 variants had been detected. On July 8th, 2020, Teen Vogue ran an article by Jessica Castillo called “How to Talk to People Who Won't Wear Face Masks,” revealing just how difficult a time many Americans were having with adhering to COVID-19 prevention guidelines. The Atlantic ran the article “Do Americans Understand How Badly They’re Doing?” by Thomas Chatterton Williams. The article compared the reopening of the U.S. to the reopening of France. The article argued that the reason that France was reopening was because the French lockdown had been extremely effective at preventing the spread of the virus. Meanwhile, the U.S. was reopening despite an extremely ineffective lockdown and rising rates of infection. On July 23rd, 2020, the U.S. passed four million cases of COVID-19. On July 30th, 2020, the U.S. surpassed 150,000 deaths as a result of COVID-19.
On Sunday, August 9th, 2020, The Washington Post published an article by Derek Hawkins and Jacqueline Dupree declaring that U.S. COVID-19 cases approached five million. By September 21st, 2020, the official COVID-19 death toll in the U.S. neared 200,000 deaths. On September 27th, 2020, The Washington Post reported in an article that there had been over one million deaths as a result of COVID-19 globally. As the fall of 2020 wore on, many public school systems across the country transitioned from holding school online to holding classes in person. As a result of the country continuing to reopen, by November 2020, the U.S. exceeded ten million cases of COVID-19.
On Saturday, December 12th, 2020, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first COVID-19 vaccine: the two dose Pfizer vaccine. Almost immediately, the vaccine was rolled out in a phased manner, first becoming available to healthcare workers and those living in long-term care facilities. On December 19th, 2020, the FDA approved a second two dose vaccine against COVID-19: the Moderna vaccine. On December 26th, reports spread of a new COVID-19 variant, the Alpha variant, which was more transmissible than the initial strain of COVID-19. By December 30th, 2020, a case of the Alpha variant of COVID-19 was detected in Colorado. On January 1st, 2021, the U.S. COVID-19 case count surpassed twenty million.
On Thursday, February 11th, 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that Americans wear two masks in order to prevent the further spread of COVID-19. On March 3rd, 2021, the news broke that in May the phased release of COVID-19 vaccines was set to end, meaning that the vaccine would become available to all Americans. On March 9th, 2021, the CDC released guidelines for those who had received both doses of any COVID-19 vaccine. These guidelines allowed for those who were fully vaccinated to gather in small groups. On April 3rd, 2021, the CDC announced that those who are fully vaccinated could travel. On April 23rd, 2021, the CDC recommended that those who were fully vaccinated continue to wear masks indoors. However, on April 27th, 2021, the CDC stated that those who were fully vaccinated could go maskless unless they were in a crowded environment.