Dear Reader,

Today is March 11th. It is hard this morning to think about anything other than the anniversary this day marks. A year ago today, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Broadway shuttered. The NBA canceled its season. Oddly shocking, also, was the news that Tom Hanks and his wife had tested positive. As if we expected some sort of celebrity immunity to protect America’s best-liked stars.

It was a blizzard of bewildering headlines coming after days of portents of looming disaster — schools suddenly closed, colleges chose to empty, and rising death tolls in Europe foretold our own fate.

At that point there were only a couple dozen U.S. deaths from the pandemic. A few thousand deaths seemed possible, but half a million unthinkable. We did not yet know how bad the toll would be in terms of either death or disruption, just that it would be high. What we did know is that we would need aggressive, clear-eyed, and honest leadership to guide the nation through crisis.