Thread by @TheAtlantic

1/ Our understanding of COVID-19, its long-term health effects, and how to curb its spread have evolved and advanced since the virus first began to spread across U.S. communities early this year.

Here’s a look at the key moments of the pandemic:

2/ In February, @jameshamblin wrote that the coronavirus was likely to be widespread: “COVID-19 must be seen as everyone’s problem.”

“I think a lot of people thought the article was sensationalism,” Hamblin says now. “I wish it had turned out to be.”
theatlantic.com/health/archive…

3/ Before disruptions to daily life became widespread in March, @juliettekayyem warned that the United States was far less prepared for a pandemic than other democratic nations experiencing outbreaks of the novel coronavirus. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

4/ On March 6, @yayitsrob and @alexismadrigal contacted all 50 states and only found 1,895 people who had been tested for COVID-19.

Had America tested more people, much earlier in the year, a mass outbreak might have been prevented.
theatlantic.com/health/archive…

5/ Across the U.S. in March, classrooms, plazas, malls, sports venues, houses of worship, and tourist destinations appeared eerily empty as people began to stay home. In Europe, quarantines had already begun.
theatlantic.com/photo/2020/03/…

6/ Despite some early confusion around the use of masks, there was soon robust evidence of their effectiveness. But influential broadcasters turned masks into one more front in the culture war—harming their audiences in the process, @conor64 wrote. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

7/ In June, @edyong209 reported that thousands of overlooked people were struggling with months of debilitating symptoms after supposedly “mild” cases of COVID-19.
theatlantic.com/health/archive…

8/ In the first half of 2020, SARS‑CoV‑2—the new coronavirus behind the disease COVID‑19—infected 10 million people around the world and killed about half a million. But few countries were as severely hit as the U.S., @edyong209 wrote in September. theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…

9/ As deaths became widespread, so did compassion fatigue, @olgakhazan wrote in September. “Part of the reason this majority-white, majority-non-elderly country has been so blasé about COVID-19 deaths is that mostly Black people and old people are dying.”
theatlantic.com/politics/archi…

10/10 There’s light at the end of the tunnel: A vaccine is here. But it will take at least six months for everyone to get it. Welcome to vaccine purgatory, writes @sarahzhang: theatlantic.com/health/archive…