Unlike in a hurricane or war zone, much of covid’s toll happened out of public view, inside the crowded hospitals where people died on ventilators, often without families by their side in the early months. Frustration built among millions of Americans who were largely stuck at home and required to wear masks at stores as kids learned via Zoom because of an invisible threat. Glimpses came through in the haunting stream of ambulances in empty New York City streets or images of overflowing morgues.
