//America's pandemic toll: In one year, half a million lives

America's pandemic toll: In one year, half a million lives

Just one year ago, America had no idea.Life in February 2020 still felt normal. Concern was building about a mystery respiratory illness that had just been named COVID-19. There was panic buying, and a sense of trepidation. Yet it was tempered by a large dose of American optimism. The coronavirus still felt like a foreign problem, even as U.S. authorities recorded the country’s first known