{"id":13059,"date":"2025-03-15T07:50:08","date_gmt":"2025-03-15T07:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/five-years-on-ghosts-of-a-pandemic-we-didnt-imagine-still-haunt-us\/"},"modified":"2025-03-15T07:50:08","modified_gmt":"2025-03-15T07:50:08","slug":"five-years-on-ghosts-of-a-pandemic-we-didnt-imagine-still-haunt-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/five-years-on-ghosts-of-a-pandemic-we-didnt-imagine-still-haunt-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Years On, Ghosts of a Pandemic We Didn\u2019t Imagine Still Haunt Us"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Five years later, the everyday has returned to the pleasant New Jersey town of Maplewood. About the only visible trace of what was endured is the urgent plea that still adorns the caution-yellow marquee of the old movie theater.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">There for the last five years, ever since the theater closed at the dawn of the dread, it says: STAY HEALTHY.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The letter L is tipped slightly, like someone staggered by a blow. That letter L might as well be us, upright but still staggering from a pandemic that killed more than seven million people worldwide, including 1.2 million in the Maplewoods and metropolises of America.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Time\u2019s passage has granted the illusion of distance. The veils of protection have dropped from faces, and crowds are once again bellying up to the bar, their conversations carrying echoes of what was being talked about at the start of 2020, as if the last five years had been excised from the calendar.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But then something noticed, something heard, unearths something buried. A message on a closed movie theater\u2019s marquee. A face mask shoved in a drawer. A silhouette of footprints on a subway platform.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The strains of a familiar John Prine song, maybe \u201cAngel From Montgomery,\u201d which at first makes you smile because you love all things Prine, but then you remember that he died in 2020 of complications from Covid, and before the next chord plays your mind is back in that dystopian time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The collective impulse to compartmentalize and forget has kicked in before. The flu pandemic of 1918 to 1920 infected nearly a fifth of the American population, yet an early chronicling of the 1920s that is now considered a classic of its kind \u2014 \u201cOnly Yesterday,\u201d written by the journalist Frederick Lewis Allen and published in 1931 \u2014 made only passing mention of the Great Influenza: just three dozen words for a national disaster that killed anywhere from a half-million to 850,000 people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A century later, that impulse to suppress has returned, muddling our sense of time. The coronavirus pandemic can seem so safely submerged in the past that we sometimes have to stop and ask ourselves: Did that really happen?<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It did.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Five years ago this month, the World Health Organization declared a pandemic, the federal government declared a national emergency \u2014 and the United States all but lurched to a halt. Schools, offices, stores and places of worship closed, and sheltering in place, a concept antithetical to community, became an unnatural way of life.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">There was at first something sci-fi unreal about the coronavirus \u2014 an invisible enemy whose means of contagion remained mysterious. But then came the reality of death, by the thousands, the tens of thousands: so many that hospitals and funeral homes could not keep up; so many that bodies were stacked almost like cordwood in refrigerated trucks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The pandemic disrupted the ancient and sacred rituals of mourning, denying many the primal need to say goodbye. Unable to gather, we could not recite prayers together, or share comforting hugs or even toss a parting rose upon on a casket. We watched the burials of our loved ones from a distance, often in the cocoon of cars.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Remember?<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As scientists raced to develop a vaccine, we lived in the uncertain, even the absurd, as government officials under pressure struggled to land upon the best course of action. Amid this life-and-death confusion, we slathered our hands with sanitizer whenever we touched a doorknob. We stood in line to walk like zombies through the disquieting stillness of supermarkets. We cotton-swabbed our noses while sitting in our cars, shoved the packed-up sample through a pharmacy\u2019s drive-up window \u2014 and waited to see if the touch of that doorknob, or the walk through that supermarket, had risked our lives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Nearly a year into the madness, a vaccine became widely available, and most of us, though not all, grasped how vaccinations would stem the contagion and save lives. New terms joined the Covid vernacular. In addition to waves and surges and hot spots, we had the three witches of variants: Alpha, Delta and Omicron. We asked one another a single question \u2014 Are you Pfizer or Moderna? \u2014 as we fretted whether we\u2019d chosen the most efficacious vaccine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Finally, in April 2023, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. signed into law a resolution to end the coronavirus national emergency declared three years earlier. The pandemic storm, it seemed, was behind us now.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Nonsense. We continue to live in its wake.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The repercussions of Covid extend beyond the hundreds of people it still kills a week, beyond the many who still suffer from long Covid, beyond the ghostly restaurants and storefronts that could not withstand the sudden and sustained plummet in business.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A cohort of adolescents and young adults missed out on the learning that occurs in and out of the classroom: the labs and proms and presentations and graduations. At the same time, many of their parents continue to work from the isolation of their homes, a virtual-first experience that frees up time at the expense of any creativity sparks from face-to-face contact.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The pandemic turned us against one another. Were we pro-mask or anti-mask? Pro- or anti-vaccination? Did we believe in the sanctity of individual rights or in suspending certain freedoms for the communal good?<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The anger spurred by masks and other Covid-related rules and requirements helped to further fuel a distrust of government: a distrust embraced by those now <em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">in<\/em> government. Vaccinations for the coronavirus recently saved millions of lives in this country, and yet the new head of the Department of Health and Human Services \u2014 the federal agency created to protect the health of the American public \u2014 has long been hostile to this tried-and-true method of immunization.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At times it seems the collective impulse to suppress has worked too well. As though we never heard the hum of those refrigerated trucks. As though we have forgotten just how vulnerable we were, and are.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/15\/us\/pandemic-five-years-dan-barry.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Five years later, the everyday has returned to the pleasant New Jersey town of Maplewood. About the only visible trace<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Five Years On, Ghosts of a Pandemic We Didn\u2019t Imagine Still Haunt Us - World News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/five-years-on-ghosts-of-a-pandemic-we-didnt-imagine-still-haunt-us\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Five Years On, Ghosts of a Pandemic We Didn\u2019t Imagine Still Haunt Us - World News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Five years later, the everyday has returned to the pleasant New Jersey town of Maplewood. About the only visible trace\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/five-years-on-ghosts-of-a-pandemic-we-didnt-imagine-still-haunt-us\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"World News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-15T07:50:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/15\/multimedia\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1-facebookJumbo.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/15\/multimedia\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1-facebookJumbo.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/five-years-on-ghosts-of-a-pandemic-we-didnt-imagine-still-haunt-us\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/five-years-on-ghosts-of-a-pandemic-we-didnt-imagine-still-haunt-us\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"News\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/#\/schema\/person\/1d8ae7348e048cb7984f26b4dd818ff2\"},\"headline\":\"Five Years On, Ghosts of a Pandemic We Didn\u2019t Imagine Still Haunt Us\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-15T07:50:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-15T07:50:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/five-years-on-ghosts-of-a-pandemic-we-didnt-imagine-still-haunt-us\/\"},\"wordCount\":1001,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/five-years-on-ghosts-of-a-pandemic-we-didnt-imagine-still-haunt-us\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/15\/multimedia\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1-facebookJumbo.jpg?w=1050&resize=1050,549&ssl=1\",\"articleSection\":[\"U.S.\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/five-years-on-ghosts-of-a-pandemic-we-didnt-imagine-still-haunt-us\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/five-years-on-ghosts-of-a-pandemic-we-didnt-imagine-still-haunt-us\/\",\"name\":\"Five Years On, Ghosts of a Pandemic We Didn\u2019t Imagine Still Haunt Us - World News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/five-years-on-ghosts-of-a-pandemic-we-didnt-imagine-still-haunt-us\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/five-years-on-ghosts-of-a-pandemic-we-didnt-imagine-still-haunt-us\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/15\/multimedia\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1-facebookJumbo.jpg?w=1050&resize=1050,549&ssl=1\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-15T07:50:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-15T07:50:08+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/five-years-on-ghosts-of-a-pandemic-we-didnt-imagine-still-haunt-us\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/five-years-on-ghosts-of-a-pandemic-we-didnt-imagine-still-haunt-us\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/five-years-on-ghosts-of-a-pandemic-we-didnt-imagine-still-haunt-us\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/15\/multimedia\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1-facebookJumbo.jpg?w=1050&resize=1050,549&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/15\/multimedia\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1-facebookJumbo.jpg?w=1050&resize=1050,549&ssl=1\",\"width\":1050,\"height\":549},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/five-years-on-ghosts-of-a-pandemic-we-didnt-imagine-still-haunt-us\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Five Years On, Ghosts of a Pandemic We Didn\u2019t Imagine Still Haunt Us\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/\",\"name\":\"World News\",\"description\":\"World News\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/#organization\",\"name\":\"World News\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2025\/01\/cropped-download.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2025\/01\/cropped-download.png\",\"width\":581,\"height\":581,\"caption\":\"World News\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/#\/schema\/person\/1d8ae7348e048cb7984f26b4dd818ff2\",\"name\":\"News\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Five Years On, Ghosts of a Pandemic We Didn\u2019t Imagine Still Haunt Us - World News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/five-years-on-ghosts-of-a-pandemic-we-didnt-imagine-still-haunt-us\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Five Years On, Ghosts of a Pandemic We Didn\u2019t Imagine Still Haunt Us - World News","og_description":"Five years later, the everyday has returned to the pleasant New Jersey town of Maplewood. About the only visible trace","og_url":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/five-years-on-ghosts-of-a-pandemic-we-didnt-imagine-still-haunt-us\/","og_site_name":"World News","article_published_time":"2025-03-15T07:50:08+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/15\/multimedia\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1-facebookJumbo.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_image":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/15\/multimedia\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1-facebookJumbo.jpg","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"News","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/five-years-on-ghosts-of-a-pandemic-we-didnt-imagine-still-haunt-us\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/five-years-on-ghosts-of-a-pandemic-we-didnt-imagine-still-haunt-us\/"},"author":{"name":"News","@id":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/#\/schema\/person\/1d8ae7348e048cb7984f26b4dd818ff2"},"headline":"Five Years On, Ghosts of a Pandemic We Didn\u2019t Imagine Still Haunt Us","datePublished":"2025-03-15T07:50:08+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-15T07:50:08+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/five-years-on-ghosts-of-a-pandemic-we-didnt-imagine-still-haunt-us\/"},"wordCount":1001,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/five-years-on-ghosts-of-a-pandemic-we-didnt-imagine-still-haunt-us\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/15\/multimedia\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1-facebookJumbo.jpg?w=1050&resize=1050,549&ssl=1","articleSection":["U.S."],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/five-years-on-ghosts-of-a-pandemic-we-didnt-imagine-still-haunt-us\/","url":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/five-years-on-ghosts-of-a-pandemic-we-didnt-imagine-still-haunt-us\/","name":"Five Years On, Ghosts of a Pandemic We Didn\u2019t Imagine Still Haunt Us - World News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/five-years-on-ghosts-of-a-pandemic-we-didnt-imagine-still-haunt-us\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/five-years-on-ghosts-of-a-pandemic-we-didnt-imagine-still-haunt-us\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/15\/multimedia\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1-facebookJumbo.jpg?w=1050&resize=1050,549&ssl=1","datePublished":"2025-03-15T07:50:08+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-15T07:50:08+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/five-years-on-ghosts-of-a-pandemic-we-didnt-imagine-still-haunt-us\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/five-years-on-ghosts-of-a-pandemic-we-didnt-imagine-still-haunt-us\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/five-years-on-ghosts-of-a-pandemic-we-didnt-imagine-still-haunt-us\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/15\/multimedia\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1-facebookJumbo.jpg?w=1050&resize=1050,549&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/15\/multimedia\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1-facebookJumbo.jpg?w=1050&resize=1050,549&ssl=1","width":1050,"height":549},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/five-years-on-ghosts-of-a-pandemic-we-didnt-imagine-still-haunt-us\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Five Years On, Ghosts of a Pandemic We Didn\u2019t Imagine Still Haunt Us"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/#website","url":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/","name":"World News","description":"World News","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/#organization","name":"World News","url":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2025\/01\/cropped-download.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2025\/01\/cropped-download.png","width":581,"height":581,"caption":"World News"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/#\/schema\/person\/1d8ae7348e048cb7984f26b4dd818ff2","name":"News","url":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/15\/multimedia\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1-facebookJumbo.jpg?w=150&resize=150,150&ssl=1","medium":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/15\/multimedia\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1-facebookJumbo.jpg?w=300&resize=300,300&ssl=1","medium_large":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/15\/multimedia\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1-facebookJumbo.jpg?w=768&resize=768,0&ssl=1","large":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/15\/multimedia\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1-facebookJumbo.jpg?w=1024&resize=1024,1024&ssl=1","1536x1536":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/15\/multimedia\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1-facebookJumbo.jpg?w=1536&resize=1536,1536&ssl=1","2048x2048":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/15\/multimedia\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1-facebookJumbo.jpg?w=2048&resize=2048,2048&ssl=1","colormag-highlighted-post":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/15\/multimedia\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1-facebookJumbo.jpg?w=392&resize=392,272&ssl=1","colormag-featured-post-medium":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/15\/multimedia\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1-facebookJumbo.jpg?w=390&resize=390,205&ssl=1","colormag-featured-post-small":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/15\/multimedia\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1-facebookJumbo.jpg?w=130&resize=130,90&ssl=1","colormag-featured-image":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/15\/multimedia\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1-facebookJumbo.jpg?w=800&resize=800,445&ssl=1","colormag-default-news":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/15\/multimedia\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1-facebookJumbo.jpg?w=150&resize=150,150&ssl=1","colormag-featured-image-large":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/15\/multimedia\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1-facebookJumbo.jpg?w=1400&resize=1400,600&ssl=1","colormag-elementor-block-extra-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/15\/multimedia\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1-facebookJumbo.jpg?w=1155&resize=1155,480&ssl=1","colormag-elementor-grid-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/15\/multimedia\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1-facebookJumbo.jpg?w=600&resize=600,417&ssl=1","colormag-elementor-grid-small-thumbnail":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/15\/multimedia\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1-facebookJumbo.jpg?w=285&resize=285,450&ssl=1","colormag-elementor-grid-medium-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/15\/multimedia\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1-facebookJumbo.jpg?w=575&resize=575,198&ssl=1"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"News","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e85cf08852547781a5f631f3713dbb5197ed4b54e32ae19c7d5769b8c8504897?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":false,"magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"Five years later, the everyday has returned to the pleasant New Jersey town of Maplewood. About the only visible trace","magazineBlocksPostCategories":["U.S."],"magazineBlocksPostViewCount":58,"magazineBlocksPostReadTime":5,"magazine_blocks_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/15\/multimedia\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1-facebookJumbo.jpg?w=1050&resize=1050,549&ssl=1",1050,549,false],"medium":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/15\/multimedia\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1-facebookJumbo.jpg?w=300&resize=300,300&ssl=1",300,300,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/15\/multimedia\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1\/15barry-covidanniversary-essay-1-facebookJumbo.jpg?w=150&resize=150,150&ssl=1",150,150,false]},"magazine_blocks_author":{"display_name":"News","author_link":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/author\/admin\/"},"magazine_blocks_comment":0,"magazine_blocks_author_image":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e85cf08852547781a5f631f3713dbb5197ed4b54e32ae19c7d5769b8c8504897?s=96&d=mm&r=g","magazine_blocks_category":"<a href=\"#\" class=\"category-link category-link-33\">U.S.<\/a>","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}