It's been a year since COVID-19 brought our country to its knees, and over 530,000 people

have lost their lives.

President Biden signs the historic $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package into law, ensuring

childhood tax credits and $1,400 stimulus checks.

And the president announced that every adult would be eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine by May

1st.

This is America Dissected.

I'm your host, Dr. Abdul Al-Sahit.

And this has been the longest year of my life.

Do you remember where you were this time last year, that week before lockdown?

Things felt normal.

The sun was just starting to peak out from a long dry winter.

There was an excitement in the air.

But a bigger, more ominous, looming threat was in the air too.

Something that was increasingly being referred to as the novel coronavirus back then.

I remember reading about this strange new flu-like illness that was spreading in Wuhan, China

in December of 2019.

But the threat didn't really hit until those last few weeks of February.

When I started to appreciate that this was going to be the big one I'd always heard

about in med school.

And yet, as late as March 8th, I was on the campaign trail with Bernie Sanders.

And one of the last things I did before lockdown, I got to speak in front of a rally in my hometown

...