Vox Sentences - One year later

The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus to be a pandemic a year ago today; the House passed two gun control bills.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Gabby Birenbaum.

TOP NEWS

A year of the pandemic

Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images

A year ago today, the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 to be a pandemic — global in scale. A year later, the world has seen over 118 million cases and 2.6 million deaths. [MarketWatch / Ciara Linnane]
This day in March 2020 was seen as one of the last "normal" days in the US, but warning signs were growing even as the virus was spreading much more quickly than had been detected. Dr. Anthony Fauci testified in front of Congress and Trump banned travel from Europe for 30 days. The NBA became the first sports league to cancel a game, and Tom Hanks announced he had tested positive. [NPR / Laurel Wamsley]
The US has been one of the hardest-hit countries. More than 29 million cases and 525,000 deaths have been reported. [CNN / Christina Maxouris and Ray Sanchez]
By the end of last March,16,000 Americans had been infected. The US passed Italy in April to have the highest death toll in the world and has continued to suffer the worst death rate since. [The Washington Post / Reis Theubault, Tim Meko, and Junne Alcantra]
2020 was the deadliest year in American history. [Politico / Adam Cancryn]
A year out, evaluation of WHO’s handling of the pandemic is mixed. Officials resisted using the term "pandemic" for weeks. Now, the organization will attempt to combat vaccine nationalism. [Deutsche Welle]
After a dark winter, where case and death rates hit their all-time highs, three approved vaccines have brought hopes for an end to the pandemic. The US is averaging 2.17 million doses administered per day. [The New York Times / David Leonhardt]
Vox is looking back at Americans' turbulent year; you can find more coverage throughout March in our series One Year Later.

House passes two gun control bills

House Democrats, joined by a few Republicans, passed a pair of bills aiming to expand background checks for gun sales. It's a push to enact major gun legislation for the first time in decades. [The New York Times / Catie Edmondson]
Both bills previously passed the Democratic House in 2019, but were not taken up by then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. With Democrats now in control of the Senate floor, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer can bring them up for a vote, where they would need 60 senators to pass. [The Wall Street Journal / Siobhan Hughes]
The first bill would mandate universal background checks, mandating a federal background check requirement for unlicensed and private sales as well as the licensed ones that require a background check now. [Vox / Gabby Birenbaum]
The other bill would close the so-called Charleston loophole, named for the white supremacist mass shooting in Charleston, South Carolina. The shooter had legally bought a gun because his background check, which eventually came back negative, was not processed within three days. The bill would extend the background check waiting period to 10 days. [CNN / Daniela Diaz and Jessica Dean]
All major gun control bills have failed over the past 10 years due to a lack of Republican support. Schumer vowed to bring the bills up for a vote to force Republicans to take a stance; universal background checks routinely poll at 90 percent or more support. [USA Today / Matthew Brown]

MISCELLANEOUS

President Biden signed the coronavirus relief bill into law Thursday ahead of an evening address to the nation.

[Vox / Emily Stewart]

Former leftist Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula de Silva sharply criticized current President Jair Bolsonaro in a speech widely seen as a political comeback bid after a recent court battle win, setting up a potential showdown. [The Guardian / Tom Phillips]
Michael Regan was confirmed by the Senate to be the chief of the Environmental Protection Agency, becoming the first Black man to lead the agency. [BuzzFeed News / Zahra Hirji]
Prince William said the royal family is “not a racist family” in response to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s interview with Oprah Winfrey, in which they described racist conversations and treatment from the royal family and its staff. [The Associated Press / Danica Kirka]

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VERBATIM

“I did not realize in my mind even anything close to more than half a million people having died in this country."

[Dr. Anthony Fauci, on how he thought about the pandemic a year ago today]

LISTEN TO THIS

Vox's Sean Illing talks with the author of The Sum of Us, Heather McGhee, about the costs of racism in America — for everyone. They discuss what we all lose by buying into the zero-sum paradigm that progress for some has to come at the expense of others, and why the left needs to reframe the country's race problem and persuade the other side with a more compelling story. [Vox / Sean Illing]

Vox Sentences - One year later

Older messages

Democrats turn on Cuomo

The GOP’s war on abortion

Biden’s first big legislative win

Russian vaccine disinformation

Vote-a-rama

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