sometimes. because it shows that you are staying active in these issues and that you are staying educated for your own sake. so that you know what is happening more, i feel. if you are worried, it shows that you care, which is something that we all need to have. that was an extraordinary group of teenagers. but i just kept thinking, how much they have to process. i said it there. over the last two years, the start of their high school careers involves experiencing covid, january 6th and now dealing with a war overseas. one of those students, his grandmother was supposed to return to poland this week. they kept her here because it is just not safe. these young kids have to face so much. and speaking of covid, we could not let this night go by without remembering this day. two years ago, march 11th, 2020, covid became real for so many of us. and this was the day that the
five nba games postponed now. three nfl games also postponed. nhl canceling all cross border games until the 23rd of this month. where do you think this is headed? i certainly hope it is not a repeat of 2020. none of us do. but it does have that feeling of march 11th, 2020, when the nba shut down and the sports world told the world that this was serious. we know that now. we also have vaccines so we re in a different place. but these leagues are dealing with what the rest of the world is dealing with, they are a mirror of society, ana, and we re seeing it. they also are, i think, are struggling to figure out, the nfl wants to do less testing to get players back on the field, to make sure the product is good enough for tv and for the fans. that is i think a terrible message of less testing for those communities in which the teams are pillars. and the role models for so many others. so it is a mess.
as sports led the way back on march 11th, 2020, as you alluded to that was the night really that the nba shut down operations and really woke everyone up. if people were uncertain about what this covid thing was, mar 11th, 2020, the same day that tom hanks and rita wilson tested positive. but the nba shutting down and suspended operations was huge. this, of course, is not that. we do have the vaccines as you mentioned. we know so much more about covid and these variants than we would have never known back in march 2020. but sports again leading the way, leading the conversation, much more than just sports, but a cultural touchstone. saying okay, if you haven t been paying attention, which shard to believe, look at sports, three nfl games postponed. nba issues, nhl issues, college basketball games postponed.
on march 11th, 2020, the world health organization s director general declared the covid-19 outbreak a pandemic. more recently as more and more people get vaccinated, especially for now in the u.s., i have begun to wonder what does the end of the pandemic look like. joining me now is dr. celine gounder, infectious disease specialist at nyu. celine, how should we think about this? we re at a situation where lots of people have got vaccinated, not enough but a lot. lots of people had the disease so they have some natural immunity. are we at the point where we can say the pandemic is over? fareed, i think we re getting close to that point. we re talking about a transition to endemic, which really means
on march 11th, 2020, the world health organization s director general declared the covid-19 outbreak a pandemic. more recently as more and more people get vaccinated, especially for now in the u.s., i have begun to wonder what does the end of the pandemic look like? joining me now is dr. saceline gounder, infectious disease specialist at nyu. celine, how should we think about this? we re at a situation where a lot of people have got vaccinated, not enough but a lot. a lot of people had the disease so they have some natural immunity. are we at the point where we can say the pandemic is over? fareed, i think we re getting close to that point. we re talking about a transition to endemic, which really means that the virus continues to circulate as some level in the community but you re not going to have these huge surges that