The COVID-19 History Project

This really happened.

This Day in COVID: September 20, 2020

Vote-by-mail meltdowns in 2020?

If your state is voting by mail, then you can't process all the ballot envelopes on November 3rd -- it's just too labor-intensive. The details vary by

Freedom to Tinker

America’s breaking point?

Lowy Institute

‘What could possibly go wrong?’: Chris Anderson, the supervisor of elections in Seminole County, Fla., on the risks of running a presidential election in a pandemic

Washington Post

The first eight months of Sweden’s COVID-19 strategy and the key actions and actors that were involved

Wiley Online

Colleges scrapping spring break amid travel concerns during coronavirus pandemic

An increasing number of colleges and universities are canceling spring break amid concerns about travel during the coronavirus pandemic.

ABC News

Breaking bad news to families in the covid-19 pandemic: how do we adapt our practice?

Virtual consultations require us to consider our approach when breaking bad news to families during the pandemic, argue these authors The ability to communicate serious news to families compassionately is [...]More...

BMJ

How 6 months of pandemic have profoundly changed Florida’s restaurants

Tampa Bay restaurants were forced to close March 20. Here’s what the industry looks like now.

Tampa Bay Times

U.S. to hit 200,000 dead; Trump sees no need for regret

As the coronavirus pandemic began bearing down on the United States in March, President Donald Trump set out his expectations. If the U.S. could keep the death toll between 100,000 to 200,000 people, Trump said, it would indicate that his administration had “done a very good job.”

PBS

Travel Alert: 6 Midwest States At ‘Tipping Point,’ Per Harvard-Brown Covid-19 Tracker

The new Covid-19 hot spot is the Heartland.

Forbes

Updated CDC guidance acknowledges coronavirus can spread through the air

CNN

Should I Stay Or Should I Go: Colleges’ And College Students’ Next Dilemma

Just weeks into the semester, colleges and universities are facing questions about what to do with their students if there is a Covid-19 outbreak on their campuses. The decision to send students home remains the largest and single most challenging decision point facing college presidents this fall.

Forbes

Travel Alert: 6 Midwest States At ‘Tipping Point,’ Per Harvard-Brown Covid-19 Tracker

The new Covid-19 hot spot is the Heartland.

Forbes

Our Mission

The COVID-19 History Project is a curated archive of the events and policy decisions surrounding the emergence of COVID-19.

The pandemic era of 2020-2022 saw massive increases in restrictions on daily life—enforced by the government and by social stigma—accompanied social protests that roiled cities worldwide

In the United States alone, trillions of dollars were spent by the federal government to offset the forced closure of businesses and the devastation of normal life.

The impacts of these policy decisions are still being felt today.

Some would like us to forget the actions and people that played a significant role during the pandemic.

But we of the COVID-19 History Project don't want to forget. Through our work, we hope there will always be an archive to learn from and interpret this fascinating, disturbing, time in world history.

The Timeline

In order to learn from the mistakes of the past, and give COVID-19 decision makers the credit—both good and bad—they deserve, we have compiled a media timeline from every day of the pandemic.

We have endeavored to make the timeline comprehensive without being duplicative, following the major trends as they unfolded.

We provided analyses for each month highlighting major events, but encourage readers to make their own conclusions about these events as well.

This Day in COVID: September 20, 2021

Details

COVID has killed about as many Americans as the 1918-19 flu

AP News

Gargling with iodine won’t stop you getting COVID

Misinformation is spreading on social media that gargling with povidone-iodine can prevent COVID.

The Conversation

Why the pandemic made some cats sick with stress – and how we can help them

Cats may actually enjoy the extra peace and quiet as we start leaving the house more.

The Conversation

COVID will likely shift from pandemic to endemic — but what does that mean?

At the beginning of 2020, most people hadn’t used the word ‘pandemic’ before. Now it’s time to understand the term ‘endemic’ and find out what to expect when COVID changes shape.

The Conversation

Coronavirus death toll in US eclipses 1918 influenza pandemic estimates

More than 675,000 Americans have now died of COVID-19.

ABC News

San Francisco mayor scolds ‘fun police’ after being criticized for flouting city’s indoor mask mandate | CNN Politics

CNN

Covid is officially America's deadliest pandemic as U.S. fatalities surpass 1918 flu estimates

Reported U.S. deaths due to Covid crossed 675,000, Johns Hopkins data shows, and is still increasing at an average of more than 1,900 fatalities per day.

CNBC

Human genetic basis of coronavirus disease 2019 - Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy

Nature

Multi-level inhibition of coronavirus replication by chemical ER stress - Nature Communications

Here, Shaban et al. show that coronaviruses modulate ER stress and the unfolded protein response. The ER stress inducer thapsigargin exerts potent antiviral effects, partially reverses the virus-induced translational shut-down, reprograms the host proteome and suppresses autophagic flux, thereby inhibiting coronavirus replication at multiple levels.

Nature

Association mining based approach to analyze COVID-19 response and case growth in the United States - Scientific Reports

Nature

External validation of the 4C mortality score among COVID-19 patients admitted to hospital in Ontario, Canada: a retrospective study - Scientific Reports

Nature

Key factors affecting people’s unwillingness to be confined during the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain: a large-scale population study - Scientific Reports

Nature

American Samoa reports its first case of the coronavirus, 18 months into the pandemic

The U.S. territory’s acting governor and health officials said their first case of Covid-19 was of a resident who returned to America Samoa from Hawaii.

NBC News

COVID Vaccine For Kids Ages 5 To 11 Is Safe And Effective, Pfizer Says

Pfizer and BioNTech say that early trial results show their vaccine established a strong antibody response against the coronavirus. FDA review is still needed.

NPR

The Struggle to Define Long COVID

Patients and skeptics are squaring off. Can research heal the rift?

The New Yorker

‘I Just Got My Vaccine’: U.S. Rollout Expands to Children Ages 12 to 15 (Published 2021)

The New York Times

Covid-19 overtakes 1918 Spanish flu as deadliest disease in American history

The Covid-19 pandemic has become the deadliest disease event in American history, with its death toll surpassing that of the 1918 Spanish flu.

STAT

Winter is coming, again: What to expect from Covid-19 as the season looms

STAT spoke with infectious disease experts and others about what to expect from Covid-19 as the seasons change.

STAT

Fauci: FDA vote against Covid booster shots ‘not the end of the story’

Advisory panel dealt blow to Biden with Friday verdict but White House adviser says million deaths avoidable if vaccinations increase

The Guardian

Covid vaccinations among US Latinos are rising thanks to community outreach

Grassroots groups are mobilizing churches, soccer coaches and cartoon abuelas to reassure underserved Spanish-speaking communities and remove barriers to get them their shots

The Guardian

Breakthrough infections happen, but most COVID-19 infections are among the unvaccinated

Waning vaccine-induced immunity may play a role in breakthrough COVID-19 infections, but the main issue is the delta variant.

UCHealth

States bracing for confusion about coronavirus booster rollout

The Washington Post

As covid-19 patients fill hospitals, health-care workers fight fear and exhaustion: ‘Here we go again’

The Washington Post

One lawyer’s rise shows how vaccine misinformation can fuel fundraising and far-right celebrity

The Washington Post

Calls grow among experts in Singapore for a vaccine mandate as COVID-19 spikes

Reuters

Covid-19 leads to global rise in unplanned pregnancy

Millions of people have experienced contraceptive service disruptions because of the coronavirus pandemic, the U.N. found.

PBS

Analysis | Denmark appears to have beaten covid-19 — for now. Here’s how it did it.

The Washington Post