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A Timeline Etched in History


When we came to the US, news was delivered on TV for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. In between, we went about our day in peace. Fast forward four decades and we are awash in news - the good, bad, and ugly kind. And the line between news and opinion has blurred to the point where the consumer has to super vigilant to avoid falling prey to partisan propaganda. We've distilled our world into two simple nuggets. If it aligns with the way I think, it must be right. If it feels wrong, it must be fake news.

I notice with great sadness that some journalists at the WH Press Briefings are not able to counter with facts. When pressed for statistics, they flounder or are bullied into silence. From my living room, I point incredulously at the screen going...c'mon, you should know this! But in doing that, I realized I lack awareness too.

So, I pieced together the timeline of Covid-19 from various sources including nytimes.com, usatoday.com, and foxnews.com because I am "fair and balanced", if nothing else!

Origination & Early Spread (December and January)

  • December 29-31: Hospitals in Wuhan treat dozens of cases of pneumonia of unknown origin

  • January 11: First death in Wuhan

  • January 20: WHO reports cases in Japan, South Korea, and Thailand

  • January 21: First case in Washington State, US

  • January 23: Wuhan locked down and cut off from the world; globally 17 dead, 570 infected

  • January 30: WHO designates coronavirus a pandemic

  • January 31: US bars foreign nationals who have traveled to China from entering; globally 213 dead, 10k infected

Rampage through Asia and Europe (February)

  • February 11: WHO names the disease Covid-19; 1100+ dead in China, nearly 45k infected worldwide

  • February 21: South Korea imposes lockdown; 76k cases worldwide

  • February 23: Italy locked down starting with 10 cities in Lombardy

  • February 26: First cases reported in Latin America CDC reports 35 cases in the US

  • February 28: European cases spike with infections in 14 countries; first cases in Sub-Saharan Africa

  • February 29: First death in the US, in Seattle; global cases at 87k

More Lockdowns (March)

  • March 3: CDC lifts restrictions on testing, 90k cases worldwide

  • March 13: US declares a national emergency

  • March 17: France imposes nationwide lockdown

  • March 20: Gov. Cuomo shuts down non-essential businesses in NY

  • March 23: UK locked down

  • March 24: India locked down

  • March 26: US death toll crosses 1k; US leads the world with 81k infections

  • March 30: VA, MD, DC, KS etc locked down; 235M Americans are told to stay at home

Staggering Numbers (April)

  • April 1: global cases top 1M

  • April 20: 2.4M cases and 165k dead worldwide, 728k cases and 41k dead in the US

This virus is reinforcing how connected we are despite the rhetoric that denies our global context.

Today is 101 days since the first death in Wuhan, 82 days since the world knew a pandemic was upon us. And we are at 2.4M infected and counting. Stunning. Terrifying. Humbling.


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