This March marked the five-year anniversary of the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns in the United States. This may shock some readers, but I was a senior in high school when, over the course of a few weeks in March 2020, the country—and the world—suddenly shut down. My school district announced that schools would be closed—at first temporarily, but an announcement soon followed that schools would remain closed for the remainder of the academic year. Allegedly “non-essential” establishments—from stores and churches to restaurants and libraries—closed their doors. In my school district, classes moved to Zoom (if you can call a teacher lecturing to a field of empty webcam boxes a “class”), sports and prom were canceled, and students were given the option of converting their first semester grades into their final grades for the entire year. “Stay-at-home” orders dramatically and suddenly infringing on freedom of movement were issued. In Virginia, my home state, the governor issued a directive dictating the “extremely limited circumstances” in which he would permit people to leave their homes. 

People’s lives were forcibly put on hold. Many civil liberties, including freedoms of worship, assembly, and movement, were suspended in unprecedented—and, I would argue, in plainly unconstitutional and unjust fashion—by political authorities across the country. 

To commemorate this somber anniversary, Public Discourse decided to publish interviews with two distinguished scholars to reflect on the pandemic and its consequences—in the realm of public health and beyond. Contributing Editor Nathanial Peters interviewed Dr. Donald W. Landry, former Chair of the Department of Medicine at Columbia University, about his experiences leading the treatment of Covid-19 patients at the height of the pandemic in New York City. And I interviewed Stephen Macedo, professor of politics at Princeton University and co-author (with Professor Frances Lee) of the new book In Covid’s Wake: How Our Politics Failed Us, about pandemic-era illiberalism’s severe effects on our political climate and the state of our public discourse. We hope you will take the time to read these interviews, and perhaps reflect on the vast impact the events of five years ago have had—and continue to have—on our society. 

As politics continued to dominate the headlines, we also found ourselves publishing a heavy dose of incisive politically-oriented essays. Michael A. Fragoso authored a two-part essay series defending U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, after some controversial rulings made her the subject of intense scrutiny on the political Right. Paul Coleman outlined new opportunities for recovering and defending free speech in Europe. Daniel Drain critiqued the Trump Administration’s new executive order seeking to expand access to IVF. And the philosopher Edward Feser defended the Trump Administration’s enforcement of immigration laws from a Catholic perspective. 

Other Noteworthy Pieces from Last Month:

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Image by Christian Lue and sourced via Unsplash.