As Colorado marks another COVID-19 anniversary, the takeaway for historians and epidemiologists is as simple as it is jarring: Americans haven’t learned the lessons from history.
Three years ago Sunday, Colorado reported its first COVID-19 case — a 30-something male skier who had traveled to Italy.
Eight days later, on March 13, an El Paso County woman in her 80s with underlying health conditions became the first in Colorado to die from the novel coronavirus. At the time, Colorado had 77 known cases.
In the days that followed, public health and executive orders shuttered businesses and schools; canceled nonessential surgeries; limited evictions and foreclosures; required face masks in public and shut-in Coloradans with stay-at-home orders.