we were really, really sick. so, it was the original gangster of covid. there was no vaccinations, there were no boosters. we just had it. coronavirus is changing everyday life in this country, in ways a lot of us couldn't have imagined even a few days ago. [chris] there was a sense of, "where is this gonna end?" it was a public health crisis, it was an economic crisis. we didn't know where it was gonna stop. the pandemic might have been the most global event in human history. when was the last time there was a single phenomenon that affected the entire world at the same time? to unleash the full power of the federal government through this effort today, i am officially declaring a national emergency. two very big words. [derek] for a while, it was a unifying event. there was this sense of, "this is a tragedy happening to all of us." but whatever sense of unity the pandemic created, it was dispelled in microseconds. because anything that happens in the us specifically is gonna be run through a political filter. state and local officials, jim, are saying