Thread by @nytopinion

This week marks a year since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States. Today, we're publishing "The Week Our Reality Broke," a series looking back at what we've lost, and what we've gained. nyti.ms/2PVNkOn

It’s understandable to miss pre-pandemic life, but “your nostalgia for the Before Times is in part a barometer of how well they were serving you, how much you’ve been able to ignore the sirens that have been blaring the whole time,” writes @lsjamison. nyti.ms/30EdGq1

Mutual aid kept communities going. “This summer, we saw thousands of our neighbors recognize the urgency of embracing mutualism over individualism,” write four mutual aid organizers and writers in Chicago. nyti.ms/3bziZ0g

What about policy changes? Last spring, “all levels of government put in place policies that just a few months earlier would have been seen by most people — not to mention most politicians — as radical and politically naïve,” writes @rmc031. nyti.ms/3rGoO1y

“They say you become a New Yorker after 10 years,” writes @luke_winkie. “I moved here in 2016, but I think 2020 should count for extra credit.” Luke proposes a resettlement tax on all New Yorkers who escaped the city during the pandemic. nyti.ms/30uA7hA

The U.S. found the money it needed. “Over the past year, the American government spent big to stave off immediate economic ruin,” @zachdcarter writes. “This year, it must show the same financial commitment to the future.” nyti.ms/38uFCBd

Jennifer Murphy is an E.M.T. with the Park Slope Volunteer Ambulance Corps in New York. “It’s impossible to see my E.M.S. friends without thinking of all the terrible things they’ve been through in the past year,” she writes. nyti.ms/3l5qL5i

Read more about the first year of the pandemic in our series, “The Week Our Reality Broke.” nyti.ms/2PVNkOn