Friday Eye Candy: Covid-19, Then and Now

The New York Times compared images from readers portraying similar scenes in 2020 and 2022.

1 minute read

January 6, 2023, 5:00 AM PST

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Coronavirus Social Distancing

robert cicchetti / Shutterstock

An article by Alicia Parlapiano, Emily Badger, Claire Cain Miller, and Margot Sanger-Katz for the New York Times collects reader-submitted photos that compare the experience of 2020 with photos updated for 2022. All of the new photos reference earlier photos published by the Times in 2020.

While the article is an effective way to ring in the new year by celebrating how far we’ve come since the darkest days to the pandemic, it also acknowledges the deep scars left by the pandemic and the many ways many people are still living with the burdens of the pandemic—from health risk to economic shock to personal loss and much more.

“It will be years before we know how deeply this experience has transformed us,” according to the article. “But the responses give an idea.” 

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