The COVID-19 History Project

This really happened.

Go to Timeline

This Day in COVID: June 4, 2020

Details

Sweden urges protesters to take it online during pandemic

Reuters

Medical Examiner's Autopsy Reveals George Floyd Had Positive Test For Coronavirus

The 20-page report released Wednesday shows that Floyd tested positive for the virus in early April. It also confirmed fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system at the time of death.

NPR

coronavirus-health-race-inequality.html

Inequality, racism and segregation help explain who is most at risk in America.

New York Times

Race, Ethnicity Data To Be Required With Coronavirus Tests In U.S.

The federal government says that as of Aug. 1, all laboratories must include detailed demographic data when reporting test results in order to help fight the pandemic nationally.

NPR

Study authors retract influential Lancet hydroxychloroquine article

Reuters

No one knows why these Covid-19 patients’ symptoms keep relapsing

Vox

COVID-19 CAN LAST FOR SEVERAL MONTHS

The disease’s “long-haulers” have endured relentless waves of debilitating symptoms—and disbelief from doctors and friends.

The Atlantic

Congress has already approved more than $3 trillion in coronavirus relief. Here’s what’s happened to it.

CNN

Melinda Gates Lays Out Her Biggest Concern for the Next Phase of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The Gates Foundation pledged $1.6 billion to the Global Vaccine Alliance

Time

George Floyd tested positive for coronavirus, but it had nothing to do with his death, autopsy shows

CNN

England to make face coverings compulsory on public transport

Reuters

Covid-19: Lancet retracts paper that halted hydroxychloroquine trials

Retraction made after Guardian investigation found inconsistencies in data

The Guardian

why-americas-nurses-were-not-prepared-for-the-coronavirus-pandemic

Tener Veenema, a fellow at the American Academy of Nursing; and Diane Meyer, an analyst at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security explain why nurses were not prepared for Covid-19, and how systems can change to better handle future public health emergencies.

Forbes

How to Hug During a Pandemic

New York Times

Jim Cramer: The pandemic led to ‘one of the greatest wealth transfers in history’

'I think we're looking at a V-shaped recovery in the stock market, and that has almost nothing to do with a V-shaped recovery in the economy,' the 'Mad Money' host said.

CNBC

How the Protests Have Changed the Pandemic

Mass demonstrations in all fifty states have upended reopening timetables and altered the meaning of the antiviral fight.

New Yorker

The Pandemic Is Stressing Your Body in New Ways

New York Times

European Central Bank takes its pandemic bond buying to 1.35 trillion euros to try to prop up economy

As well as increasing its Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme, the central bank for Europe significantly downgraded its expectations for economic growth in the region.

CNBC

Two coronavirus studies retracted after questions emerge about data

CNN

NIH chief worried vaccine ‘skepticism’ might cause some to skip coronavirus vaccine

CNN

Bill Gates-backed vaccine alliance raises $8.8 billion from world leaders and businesses

The funding was raised at a U.K.-hosted summit, which saw world leaders pledge billions of dollars to global vaccine alliance Gavi.

CNBC

U.K. summit calls for freely available virus vaccine

The British government has hosted a vaccine summit that raised billions of dollars to immunize children in developing countries as expert wrestled with the difficult question of how any potential vaccine against the coronavirus might be distributed globally — and fairly.

PBS

Coronavirus: Face coverings to be mandatory on public transport

From 15 June, people in England could be fined for not wearing a covering, the transport secretary says.

BBC

Face coverings will be mandatory on England’s public transport starting June 15

CNN

New York protesters say they are facing two deadly pandemics: racism and coronavirus

“In many ways we’re choosing between the lives of our unborn sons and those of our parents,' one protest organizer said.

NBC

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: June 4, 2021

Details

Vaccinating children ‘not a high priority’ amid shortage: WHO

Expert says as children are at ‘very, very low risk’, other more vulnerable groups should be put first.

Al Jazeera

Covid: White House defends Dr Fauci over lab leak emails

The disease expert says emails about a theory Covid leaked from a China lab are being misconstrued.

BBC

Namibia In Covid Third Wave of Coronavirus Infections

Bloomberg

A woman with HIV had the coronavirus for 216 days. The virus mutated at least 30 times inside her.

Scientist detected 32 virus mutations in the woman's body, including some seen in variants of concern. It's unclear if she passed on any of them.

Business Insider

Plastic surgery and cosmetic procedures booming amid COVID-19 pandemic

'With people now seeing themselves on screen for hours a day, there was a greater scrutiny of the fine lines and wrinkles,' a plastic surgeon explained.

CBS News

Analysis: Republicans are using Fauci’s emails to make him into a boogeyman | CNN Politics

CNN

What you need to know about the COVID-19 lab-leak hypothesis

Newly reported information has revived scrutiny of this possible origin for the coronavirus, which experts still call unlikely though worth investigating.

National Geographic

WHO approval of Chinese CoronaVac COVID vaccine will be crucial to curbing pandemic

CoronaVac is one of two Chinese vaccines already sustaining vaccination campaigns in more than 70 nations. Both should soon be much more widely available to low-income countries.

Nature

First science adviser in US president’s cabinet talks COVID, spying and more

Eric Lander spoke to Nature during his first day as the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Nature

Six months of COVID vaccines: what 1.7 billion doses have taught scientists

At a pivotal moment in the pandemic, Nature explores key questions about the vaccines that countries are racing to deliver while viral variants spread around the globe.

Nature

Coronapod: Uncertainty and the COVID 'lab-leak' theory

How doubt is fuelling the debate over the origin of coronavirus.

Nature

Slight reduction in SARS-CoV-2 exposure viral load due to masking results in a significant reduction in transmission with widespread implementation - Scientific Reports

Nature

Country distancing increase reveals the effectiveness of travel restrictions in stopping COVID-19 transmission - Communications Physics

Network approaches are key to understand epidemic spreading, inherently driven by human mobility patterns and constrained by transport systems. In this work, the authors develop a country distance framework to capture the spread of COVID-19 on top of the airline network, analyzing the effectiveness of mobility restrictions in the presence of multiple outbreaks and suggesting strategies for optimized coordinated travel restrictions.

Nature

Filipino American nurses, reflecting on disproportionate Covid toll, look ahead

Filipino Americans account for 4 percent of the nurses in the U.S. but about 25 percent of Covid-19 deaths among nurses. Some are leaving the profession, prioritizing family and feeling a sense of resilience.

NBC News

Covid deaths ravaged this Native American tribe. Now, it says 98% of eligible citizens are vaccinated.

Vaccination efforts have been so successful for the Blackfeet Nation in Montana that it shared surplus doses with Canada and will help vaccinate tourists visiting Glacier National Park.

NBC News

Fauci’s emails don’t prove a Wuhan conspiracy, but raise further questions

Why were U.S. scientists so quick to dismiss the possibility of bioengineering as the potential origin of the Covid-19 virus?

NBC News

U.S. traffic deaths rise to highest levels since 2007 despite pandemic

Traffic deaths in the United States rose 7.2 percent from last year, making it the biggest increase in 13 years, despite fewer drivers on the road and less people traveling due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

NBC News

The Unexpected Beauty of COVID Hair

The pandemic obliged—or enabled—many women to go gray. They’re still reckoning with the transformation.

The New Yorker

Bo Burnham's 'Inside' Is A Musical Fantasy About Terrible Realities

Burnham has been away from stand-up for a long time, and this is not a stand-up special. It's theater, filmed at home, touching on some of the harshest realities of the isolated mind.

NPR

The Coronavirus Mostly Spares Younger Children. Teens Aren't So Lucky. Published 2020

The New York Times

How Wearing a Mask Can Reduce Allergy Symptoms

The New York Times

Attacks on Fauci grow more intense, personal and conspiratorial

Politico

Congo faces third wave of coronavirus, says health minister

Reuters

COVID, Quickly, Episode 8: The Pandemic's True Death Toll and the Big Lab-Leak Debate

Scientific American

World leaders ‘ignoring’ role of destruction of nature in causing pandemics

Ending the destruction of nature to stop outbreaks at source is more effective and cheaper than responding to them, scientists say

The Guardian

Tell us about your experiences during the Covid pandemic

Whether you’ve suffered in the past year or been lucky enough to escape the worst of it, we would like to hear your stories about the pandemic

The Guardian

Therapeutic versus prophylactic anticoagulation for patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 and elevated D-dimer ...

The Lancet

Coronavirus Brazil: Pandemic pet abandonment soars at the ‘Island of the Cats’

Washington Post