As we prepare to enter the third calendar year of the pandemic, our society and its politics have been upended. For all that we have learned about the coronavirus, we are still grappling with how to contain it. More than 790,000 Americans have died from COVID-19. Worldwide, the death toll is 5.27 million. 

With such a once-in-a-lifetime event, what are the most significant changes we have seen to public health policy due to COVID-19, and will they last past the pandemic? And what could our own government have done differently in reacting to the pandemic that might have changed things for the better? 

In this episode of Political Theater, we discuss these topics with CQ Roll Call health care editor Rebecca Adams at the top of the podcast. Then, we talk to filmmaker Matthew Heineman about his new documentary, “The First Wave.” Heineman’s film is a raw look at the embattled Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, N.Y., in the early days of the pandemic. It is a stark reminder of how scary things were, how little we knew at the time and how far we have come. 

Show Notes:

• ‘The First Wave’ shows early days of COVID we never had to see
• Omicron partially evades protection from Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine
• Drug overdose deaths top 100,000 for first time
• Trump, first lady test positive for COVID-19
• There’s a problem with politics, and it isn’t just partisanship