It all started with canceling our trip to Los Angeles in March 2020 then it went downhill from there. Our world faced a pandemic last year that has bled into 2021. We are all hopeful with the availability of a vaccine that our economy and country will slowly return to normalcy. It's been quite the ordeal. I will say though... for our family, we weren't affected financially by the pandemic. Fortunately, Jonathan was able to work from him. And socially, we thoroughly enjoyed having our lives brought to an abrupt halt. We got to spend day after day together, eat together, play together, engage with one another. Jonathan was home. It truly was a fantastic and we felt blessed by that time. Our lives slowly have returned to normal, although the mask mandate is still lingering, and we feel saddened by those who have lost their lives from this virus.
Below is some information re the virus from when it started to date. When is first struck, society went nuts and bought up boxes and boxes of toilet paper, paper towels, sanitizers, etc. I was no different. Oops... See the picture of our toilet paper delivery. Needless to say, we didn't run out.:):) The other pics portrayed what we did!!! Hung out, went to farm, relaxed!! We continue to battle this pandemic in hopes of overcoming it.
At the end of the day, our family is comforted in knowing that only God is in control. We rely on our faith knowing He knows what is and what's to come, and for that, I can sleep and will continue to sleep in peace.
The COVID-19 pandemic in the United States is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). More than 23,900,000 confirmed cases have been reported since January 2020, resulting in more than 398,000 deaths, the most of any country and the eleventh-highest on a per capita basis.[6][9] The U.S. has nearly a quarter of the world's cases and a fifth of all deaths. COVID-19 became the third leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2020, behind heart disease and cancer.[10]
On December 31, 2019, China announced the discovery of a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan. The first American case was reported on January 20, and President Donald Trump declared the U.S. outbreak a public health emergency on January 31. Restrictions were placed on flights arriving from China,[11][12] but the initial U.S. response to the pandemic was otherwise slow, in terms of preparing the healthcare system, stopping other travel, and testing.[13][14][15][a] Meanwhile, Trump downplayed the threat posed by the virus and claimed the outbreak was under control.[17]
The first known American deaths occurred in February.[18][b] On March 6, Trump signed the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, which provided $8.3 billion in emergency funding for federal agencies to respond to the outbreak.[19] On March 13, President Trump declared a national emergency.[20] In mid-March, the Trump administration started to purchase large quantities of medical equipment,[21] and in late March, it invoked the Defense Production Act to direct industries to produce medical equipment.[22] By April 17, the federal government approved disaster declarations for all states and territories. By mid-April, cases had been confirmed in all fifty U.S. states, and by November in all inhabited U.S. territories. A second rise in infections began in June 2020, following relaxed restrictions in several states.[23]
State and local responses to the outbreak have included prohibitions and cancellation of large-scale gatherings (including festivals and sporting events), stay-at-home orders, and school closures.[24] Disproportionate numbers of cases have been observed among Black and Latino populations,[25][26][27] and there were reported incidents of xenophobia and racism against Asian Americans.[28] Clusters of infections and deaths have occurred in many areas.[c]
December 2019 to February 2020
In late November 2019, coronavirus infections had first broken out in Wuhan, China.[31][32] China publicly reported the cluster on December 31, 2019.[3] On January 6, U.S. Health and Human Services offered to send China a team of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) health experts to help contain the outbreak, but China ignored the offer,[33] which the CDC said contributed to the U.S. and other countries getting a late start in identifying the danger and taking early action.[34][35]
After China confirmed that the cluster of infections was caused by a novel infectious coronavirus[3] on January 7, the CDC issued an official health advisory the following day.[36] The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on January 10 about the strong possibility of human-to-human transmission and urged precautions.[37] On January 20, the WHO and China both confirmed that human-to-human transmission had indeed occurred.[38] The CDC immediately activated its Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to respond to the outbreak in China.[39] Also, the first report of a COVID-19 case in the U.S. was reported.[3] After other cases were reported, on January 30, the WHO declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)—its highest level of alarm[40]—warning that "all countries should be prepared for containment."[41][42][e] The same day, the CDC confirmed the first person-to-person case in America.[44] The next day, the U.S. declared a public health emergency.[45] Although by that date there were only seven known cases in the U.S., the HHS and CDC reported that there was a likelihood of further cases appearing in the country.[45]
On February 2, the U.S. enacted travel restrictions to and from China.[12] On February 6, the earliest confirmed American death with COVID-19 (that of a 57-year-old woman) occurred in Santa Clara County, California. The CDC did not report its confirmation until April 21,[18] by which point nine other COVID-19 deaths had occurred in Santa Clara County.[46] The virus had been circulating undetected at least since early January and possibly as early as November.[47] On February 25, the CDC warned the American public for the first time to prepare for a local outbreak.[48] However, large gatherings that occurred before then accelerated transmission.[49]
In February, Vice President Mike Pence took over for Secretary Alex Azar as chair of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.[50]
March to April 2020
By March 11, the virus had spread to 110 countries, and the WHO officially declared a pandemic.[24] The CDC had already warned that large numbers of people needing hospital care could overload the healthcare system, which would lead to otherwise preventable deaths.[51][52] Dr. Anthony Fauci said the mortality from the coronavirus was 10 times higher than the common flu.[53]
By March 12, diagnosed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. exceeded a thousand.[54] On March 16, the White House advised against any gatherings of more than ten people.[55] Since March 19, the State Department has advised U.S. citizens to avoid all international travel.[56]
By the middle of March, all fifty states were able to perform tests with a doctor's approval, either from the CDC or from commercial labs. However, the number of available test kits remained limited, which meant the true number of people infected had to be estimated.[57] As cases began spreading throughout the nation, federal and state agencies began taking urgent steps to prepare for a surge of hospital patients. Among the actions was establishing additional places for patients in case hospitals became overwhelmed.[58] Manpower from the military and volunteer armies were called up to help construct the emergency facilities.[59][60]
Throughout March and early April, several state, city, and county governments imposed "stay at home" quarantines on their populations to stem the spread of the virus.[61] By March 27, the country had reported over 100,000 cases.[62] On April 2, at President Trump's direction, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and CDC ordered additional preventive guidelines to the long-term care facility industry.[63] On April 11, the U.S. death toll became the highest in the world when the number of deaths reached 20,000, surpassing that of Italy.[64] On April 19, the CMS added new regulations requiring nursing homes to inform residents, their families and representatives, of COVID-19 cases in their facilities.[65] On April 28, the total number of confirmed cases across the country surpassed one million.[66]
May to August 2020
By May 27, less than four months after the pandemic reached the U.S., 100,000 Americans had died with COVID-19.[67] State economic reopenings and lack of widespread mask orders resulted in a sharp rise in cases across most of the continental U.S. outside of the Northeast.[68]
On July 6, the United States Department of State announced U.S. withdrawal from the World Health Organization effective July 6, 2021.[69] The U.S. passed five million COVID-19 cases by August 8.[70]
On July 10, the CDC adopted the Infection Fatality Ratio (IFR), "the number of individuals who die of the disease among all infected individuals (symptomatic and asymptomatic)," as a new metric for disease severity, replacing the Symptomatic Case Fatality Ratio and the Symptomatic Case Hospitalization Ratio. Per the CDC, the IFR "takes into account both symptomatic and asymptomatic cases, and may therefore be a more directly measurable parameter for disease severity for COVID-19."[71]
In July, U.S. PIRG and 150 health professionals sent a letter asking the federal government to "shut it down now, and start over".[72] In July and early August, requests multiplied, with a number of experts asking for lockdowns of "six to eight weeks"[73] that they believed would restore the country by October 1, in time to reopen schools and have an in-person election.[74]
In August, over 400,000 people attended the 80th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, and from there, at least 300 people in more than 20 states were infected.[75] The CDC followed up with a report on the associated 51 confirmed primary event-associated cases, 21 secondary cases, and five tertiary cases in the neighboring state of Minnesota, where one attendee died of COVID-19.[76]
September to December 2020
On September 22, the U.S. passed 200,000 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.[77] In early October, an unprecedented series of high-profile U.S. political figures and staffers announced they had tested positive for COVID-19.[78][79] On October 2, Trump announced on Twitter that both he and the First Lady had tested positive for the coronavirus and would immediately quarantine.[80][79] Trump was given an experimental Regeneron product with two monoclonal antibodies[81][f] and taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center,[83] where he was given remdesivir and dexamethasone.[84]
USA Today studied the aftermath of presidential election campaigning, recognizing that causation was impossible to determine. Among their findings, cases increased 35% compared to 14% for the state after a Trump rally in Beltrami County, Minnesota. One case was traced to a Biden rally in Duluth.[85]
On November 9, President-elect Joe Biden's transition team announced his COVID-19 Advisory Board.[86] On the same day, the total number of cases had surpassed 10 million[87] while the total had risen by over 1 million cases in the ten days prior, averaging 102,300 new cases per day.[88] Pfizer also announced that its COVID-19 vaccine may be up to 90% effective.[89][90] In November, the Trump administration reached an agreement with a number of retail outlets, including pharmacies and supermarkets, to make the COVID-19 vaccine free once available.[91]
In spite of recommendations by the government not to travel, over two million people ended up flying on airlines during the Thanksgiving period.[92] On December 8, the U.S. passed 15 million cases, with about one out of every 22 Americans having tested positive since the pandemic began.[93] By December 12, TSA employees across U.S. airports had a 38% increase in COVID-19 infections.[94] On December 14, the U.S. passed 300,000 deaths, representing an average of more than 961 deaths per day since the first known death on February 6. More than 50,000 deaths were reported in the past month, with an average of 2,403 daily deaths occurring in the past week.[95] On December 20, a 52-year-old female Black woman, Dr Susan Moore died of complications from COVID-19, after she was sent home from the hospital following her treatment. Moore had raised a complaint against the biased medical treatment of Black patients, where a white doctor at a hospital in suburban Indianapolis downplayed her complaints of pain.[96]
On December 24, following concerns over a probably more easily transmissible new SARS-CoV-2 variant from the United Kingdom (B.1.1.7), the CDC announced testing requirements for American passengers traveling from the UK, to be administered within 72 hours, starting on December 28.[97][98] On December 29, the U.S. reported the first case of this variant in Colorado. The patient had no travel history, leading the CDC to state, "Given the small fraction of US infections that have been sequenced, the variant could already be in the United States without having been detected."[99] On December 30 and 31, the country's second and third confirmed cases of the variant were reported in California and Florida.[100][101]
January 2021
On January 1, 2021, the U.S. passed 20 million cases, representing an increase of more than one million over the past week and 10 million in less than two months.[102][103] On January 6, the CDC announced that it had found at least 52 confirmed cases of the more contagious SARS-CoV-2 variant in California, Florida, Colorado, Georgia, and New York; and it also stressed that there could already be more cases in the country.[104] In the following days, more cases of the variant were reported in other states, leading former CDC director Tom Frieden to express his concerns that the U.S. will soon face "close to a worst-case scenario".[105]
Also on January 6, supporters of President Trump stormed the United States Capitol building, leading to public health experts saying the event could be a potential COVID-19 superspreader event in the days after.[106] At least one activist participated in the riot despite a recent positive COVID-19 diagnosis,[107] and few members of the crowd wore face coverings, with many coming from out of town.[106] A group of maskless Republicans sheltering in place were recorded refusing masks offered by Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester (D–DE),[108] and as many as 200 congressional staffers reportedly sheltered in various rooms inside the Capitol, further increasing the risk of transmission.[106][109] Brian P. Monahan, the attending physician of Congress, later reported that members of Congress may have been exposed to others with COVID-19 while sheltering in place.[108][110] Four members of Congress have since tested positive due to the exposure.[111]
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