EMS Capt. AJ Briones advises a woman with Covid-19 after responding to a call to her home on December 29, 2020 in Yonkers, New York. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) Just one year ago, America had no idea.Life in February 2020 still felt normal.
Concern was building about a mystery respiratory illness that had just been named COVID-19. There was panic buying, and a sense of trepidation.
Yet it was tempered by a large dose of American optimism. The coronavirus still felt like a foreign problem, even as U.S. authorities recorded the country’s first known death from the virus.Precisely a year later, America reached a milestone of 500,000 deaths from COVID-19.A relentless march of death and tragedy has warped time and memory.