This virus first gained traction in the US around March of 2020. Seattle was one of the first hotspots where it killed several people in a nearby nursing home.

It led to lockdowns in many states. People were discouraged from leaving their homes for non-essential trips. Schools in Seattle were closed for over a year and all learning was handled remotely via videoconference. We took the lockdown very seriously and rarely left the house. We began having groceries delivered instead of going to the store.

Cloth masks became common. We bought up a supply and created a landing station at the door, with a container for clean masks and another for dirty masks. We began to wear masks every time we were outside our home.

Vaccines were developed that offered great protection. In the US, Pfizer and Moderna offered mRNA vaccines, each consisting of two doses. Dolly Parton famously contributed $1 million toward the development of the Moderna vaccine. Johnson and Johnson offered a different type of vaccine in a single dose.

Those were made widely available by May 2021. Tiffany started trying to make appointments for all of us. She and I got appointments at the Safeway nearby to receive the Moderna shot. The Moderna shots needed to be administered three weeks apart. Ambria got her first shot at a Walgreens. The city offered a pop-up vaccine clinic closer to our apartment that coincided with her second dose. She got her second dose at that clinic. They gave a coupon for a free scoop of ice cream at Husky Deli.

Once the vaccines were available, Washington and later Seattle relaxed mask mandates. Some stores maintained them, but those started to go away as more people got vaccinated. My parents were able to come visit after a year and a half. Public transit still required masks.

Mask requirements are starting to come back now. We may ultimately require boosters as a new variant called Delta is able to breakthrough the vaccine more effectively than the original virus.