This week marks five years since March 13, 2020, the day President Donald Trump declared a national state of emergency over the novel coronavirus outbreak. By that date, only 57 Americans had died of COVID-19 and 1,645 had been diagnosed with the virus. Three days later, the White House issued the President’s Coronavirus Guidelines for America. Among other things, the guidelines advised Americans to avoid bars, restaurants, shopping trips, and social visits. They also recommended that governors in states with evidence of community transmission should close schools, bars, restaurants, food courts, gyms, and other indoor and outdoor venues. By then, the death toll had risen to 102.
Sticking to peer-reviewed science and setting aside the political question of what the government should do with this information, what do we know now about how deadly the pandemic was? On Monday and yesterday, we looked at what researchers have…
