Looking back at the last few months, it seems the United States has passed through Acts One, Two, and Three. There was a period of denial that happened sometime between late January (“the flu is worse,” “Xi has it under control”) and early March (“coronavirus is a hoax”). There was a second period of explaining the virus and laying blame (“Chinese virus”). Act Three has been the longest period, which began with panic hording (Hamsterkauf) in early March and an ending that will arguably change depending on who you ask.

One way to get at this question of periodization is perhaps to look at the information seeking behaviors of Americans in the last year. Include in the images (below) is a graph of Google searches for the term “coronavirus” in Google over the past 5 months.

Searches peaked on March 14 and then fell off. Americans know, however, that this was when the story started for many. This was the week when schools and workplaces closed. The furloughs began while the stock market reeled.

It seems counterintuitive that searches for the virus would slow, since the menace of coronavirus only grew through March and April. Some of the drop-off had to do with people searching for “COVID” instead of “coronavirus,” as our terminology shifted. It may also have been related to the kind of information people sought. By mid-March, most knew what it is. When SARS-CoV-2 became real—refrigerated trucks parked outside hospitals in Queens and mass graves yawned open on Hart’s Island, when closures meant that CARES Act stimulus checks made the difference between having food and shelter and not—that is, when people started searching for how to live with this virus, the search terms changed.

Rosenberg also says that “epidemics ordinarily end with a whimper, not a bang.”[2] The sincere hope is that this will apply to the United States in 2020. On the one hand, it appears that cases are dropping nationally. On the other hand, daily cases now climb in twenty-four states.[3] Some hopeful signs. But something tells me we aren’t yet out of the woods with this virus. 

Nevertheless, this weekend all across the United States stores are opening. And, as I can smell out my window, the Memorial Day barbecues and pool parties are just firing up.

Notes

[1] Lee DeVito, “Cellphone Data Shows Protesters Dispersed across Michigan, Raising Concerns of Spreading Coronavirus,” Detroit Metro Times, May 4, 2020, https://www.metrotimes.com/news-hits/archives/2020/05/04/cellphone-data-shows-operation-gridlock-protesters-dispersed-across-michigan-raising-concerns-of-spreading-coronavirus; Kevin Quealy, “The Richest Neighborhoods Emptied Out Most as Coronavirus Hit New York City,” May 15, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/05/15/upshot/who-left-new-york-coronavirus.html.

[2] Rosenberg, “What Is an Epidemic?,” 8.

[3] H Juliette Unwin, Swapnil Mishra, Valerie C Bradley et al. State-level tracking of COVID-19 in the United States (21-05-2020), doi: https://doi.org/10.25561/79231