A6 THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE SUNDAY • DECEMBER 27,2020 The COVID-19 pandemic National events SanDiegoCounty’s experienceinthe pandemic waslessintensethan other areasofthe country until the post-Thanksgiving surge. California events Usethe timelinesbelowtosee the major events of 2020,placed in contextwith daily case totals. SanDiegoCounty events January March April June August October 1 December Virus is sequenced Flurry of lockdowns Reopening rallies Manystatesbegin to Expanded PresidentDonald Firstvaccinations and work begins begins. begin nationwide. reopen. unemployment Trump tests begin. on vaccines. CARESAct passed. Wave of protestsfurther insurance positivefor dividesthe country over expires. COVID-19. COVID rules. December 5 February March7 May1 September Regional MCAS Miramar used to SanDiegoCounty County issuesmask County avoids stay-at-home order quarantine Americans confirms first case. mandate. harshest levelof announced. from Wuhan and cruise newCOVID rules. ships. FirstU.S.death. County hospitals help patients from El Centro. November 6 Aftertelling March March 19 May7 July 13 August28 Callifornians to not California’sfirst Gov. Gavin Newsom Easing of California reverses Tiered reopening dine inside,Newsom cases confirmed in announces state stay-at-home reopening. system begins. dinesinside at the the BayArea. stay-at-home order. ordersbegins. French Laundry. January February March April MayJune July AugustSeptember October November December Cumulative cases and deaths in San Diego County, by month Cases: 0 849 3,711 7,554 14,623 29,577 38,871 47,485 57,102 83,421 142,647 Deaths: 0 11 134 269 372 565 688 792 891 1,019 1,402 Racial justice Thedeaths of severalBlack Americans pushed racial justice, policing practices and racism back into the spotlightthis year.Inayear of isolation, social media became the forum fordiscussions on ways the nation needed to reckon with itspastand present. February 23 March 13 May5 May25 June 1 September 23 Autumn Ahmaud Arbery Breonna Taylor Video of Arbery’s George Floyd Protesterstear-gassed Officers notcharged Activists work to registervoters, pressure killed. killed. killing posted. killed. in Lafayette Square. in Taylor’s death. Democratstosupportthe movement. May30-31 June 1 June 8 September 27 October 31 November 3 Large protest occurs in La Mesa, Defend East Againstpublic’s TheSan Diego Facebook SanDiegovotersapprove eventually turns into ariot. County Facebook wishes, SanDiego Union-Tribune removes MeasureB,creating anew SanDiegopolicedeployteargas,flash group formed. CityCouncil approves issuescommunity- Defend East policeoversightbody. bombsduring downtown protest. SDPD bans budget,increasing wide apology for County. chokeholds. policefunding. past racism. Politics Unlikethe pandemic and the summer of protests, we had advancenoticeonhow intensethe 2020 election would be.While SanDiego'selection wasless dramatic than the national one,the election of diverse leadersmade history in the region. January February March 6 Spring April 16 Summer August11 November 3-7 November 7 December Trump Democratic Super In-person Sen. Bernie Sanders Statesexpand Biden names Mail ballots slow Biden crosses the 270 Trump triesto impeached by primary Tuesday campaigning dropsout.Sen. Joe voting by mail. California Sen. election results. Rapt electoral vote threshold, overturn the House, acquitted begins. stops. Biden becomes Trump resumes Kamala Harris nation waitsfor becomespresident-elect. election. by the Senate. presumptive rallies. as running mate. election outcome. Harris becomesfirst Electoral college Democratic nominee. female Black, Asian votes. Vice President-elect. March 6 July November 3 December 22 California holds primary election. Newsom praised for Todd Gloria elected as mayor, AlexPadilla named as Bernie Sanderswins the state. handling of first the first time an openly gay Harris’replacement, COVID-19 wave. man holds the position. would become first MayoralcandidatesTodd Gloria, BoardofSupervisorsflipsto Latino senatorfrom BarbaraBry advancetothe California. November election. Democrat control. Sources: SanDiegoCounty;U-T ResearchNote: SanDiegoCounty COVID-19 case totals as of DATE DANIEL WHEATON U-T tutions spawned acronyms that surfaced more often as the year 2020 went on: “D&I,” for diversity and inclusion, and “BIPOC,” for Black, FROM A1 Indigenous and other people of which the English-speaking world color. amassed a new collective vocabu- Not all of the changes arrived lary relating to the coronavirus, without backlash. Oxford’s report and how quickly it became, in noted a rise in the use of “counter- many instances, a core part of the protesters,” who showed up at language.” some of the demonstrations. Crit- Words such as COVID-19 and ics bemoaned a “cancel culture” lockdown and superspreader, and that boycotts people whose words phrases like social distancing, re- or actions are deemed unaccept- mote learning and self-quaran- able. tine. It all added up to months of un- “The English language, like all rest, another word that saw its us- of us, has had to adapt rapidly and age spike in 2020. repeatedly this year,” the Oxford report says. ‘Annus horribilis’ Did we ever. The year staggers to a close with Trump, defeated at the polls Life upended by Joe Biden, refusing to accept In March, San Diego County’s the results of the Nov. 3 election. first resident tested positive for Oxford Languages did its study the coronavirus — a word that before unsubstantiated claims of dates to the 1960s, but was con- widespread voter fraud became fined mostly to medical journals the central focus of the president’s until this year. attention, so it’s not clear how It quickly became one of the deeply the efforts to upend the most frequently used nouns in the U-T FILE vote — and those to preserve it — Jose Nunez, a grocery clerk at the Ralphs supermarket in the La Jolla Square shopping cen- English language, according to the penetrated our everyday vocabu- ter, stocks empty shelves early in the morning on March 19. Oxford researchers, who collect lary. about 150 million words from news But as summer moved toward sites and other Internet publica- “doomscrolling.” The way it be- fall, the lexicographers tracked a tions every month to track usage. came hard to tell one locked-down surge in certain words that spoke Other words and phrases day from the next led to the term to the nation’s fierce interest in the quickly joined it in the vernacular, “Blursday.” election. asign of how much the pandemic Face coverings went from op- “Mail-in,” for example, went up was altering life here and around tional to recommended to manda- in usage 3,000 percent over a year the globe, affecting everyone. tory, and so “mask-shaming” en- ago — a reflection of Trump’s pre- Looking at the vocabulary list now tered the lexicon. It was a weapon occupation with that kind of bal- is like clicking through a slide- adopted by both sides — those lot, and of its increased adoption show, the snapshots triggering who supported masks and those by election officials around the memories of how the social and who resisted them — and it got country as a way to keep people economic upheaval unfolded. wielded amid the bigger political from polling places where the virus There was the rapid emergence and cultural wars rattling the might spread. of “COVID-19,” a new word that country. In the end, voter participation first appeared in a World Health One Starbucks customer in set or came close to records in San Organization report in February San Diego, unhappy about being Diego, the state and nationwide. and by summer had become more asked to wear a mask, went on San Diego got a new mayor, Todd commonplace than “coronavirus.” Facebook to complain about the Gloria, the first person of color It slowly began showing up in obit- barista. The post caught the atten- elected to the position, and the uaries as the death toll mounted. tion of an Orange County market- first who is openly gay. A race for a San Diego’s first fatality was re- ing consultant, who organized a school board seat in Warner COURTESY PHOTO ported March 22. By Christmas, GoFundMe campaign for the Springs wound up tied, forcing a Heathe Fletcher and Andrea Phillips put their wedding the total had reached 1,350. barista that raised $100,000. coin flip to determine the winner. online so relatives could watch via Zoom. Then came a variation, “covid- Zoom turned into a noun, in- Vaccines started arriving after iots,” used initially to disparage stead of a verb, with people using the election, bright lights at the hoarders who cleared market the online meeting platform for apolis knelt on his neck for almost the county quickly banned the ca- end of a dark tunnel. “I feel like shelves of toilet paper and other work, school and other gatherings. nine minutes. rotid restraint, a controversial healing is coming,” said Sandra goods in the early, bewildering There were Zoom weddings, Zoom Although some of the demon- neck hold used by officers, and vot- Lindsay, a Long Island nurse, the days of the pandemic. concerts, Zoom funerals. Partici- strations turned destructive — ers in San Diego approved a new first person inoculated in the U.S. “When people feel uncertain, pants learned to “unmute.” And buildings were burned and stores independent police oversight Now, as 2021 beckons, another they tend to focus on things that there were virtual social hours, looted in La Mesa — most were board. Law-enforcement reforms phrase has been appearing occa- bring them certainty,” Uma Kar- sometimes with cocktails newly peaceful and led to an ongoing gained traction across the nation. sionally in written roundups: an- markar, a neuroeconomist at UC known as “quarantinis.” reckoning with the nation’s history Statues and flags with ties to nus horribilis. Latin for horrible San Diego, told the Union-Tribune As the coronavirus restrictions of racial discrimination, economic the Confederate Army during the year. in March. “Most of us don’t have shuttered stores, schools, work- inequality and other social-justice Civil War came down, and legisla- The phrase first made it into the ability to make new vaccines or places, sporting events, churches problems.