One Year of the Pandemic Has Transformed Life in the U.S.
Ten Americans discuss how Covid has reshaped matters simple and profound
Betsy Sneller, a Michigan State University sociolinguist, meets virtually with researchers to discuss the MI Diaries project. Developed with colleague Suzanne Wagner, the project has volunteers submit recordings of themselves talking about their lives during the pandemic, to observe changes in how we speak.
Photographer: Erin Kirkland/Bloomberg
At first it seemed like it would last only a short while. Then it just became the way things were.
In the 365 days since the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic, America’s people and economy have been remade by numbers that few could have imagined: More than 29 million infected and 529,000 dead, about 10 million unemployed. Millions more working from home — if they were lucky.