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Looking back at the impact of COVID-19, 5 years later

11:02

Here & Now Newsroom

March 06, 2025

This undated electron microscope image made available by the U.S. National Institutes of Health in February 2020 shows the Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, yellow, emerging from the surface of cells, pink, cultured in the lab. Also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus causes COVID-19. The sample was isolated from a patient in the U.S. (NIAID-RML via AP)

Five years ago, a novel virus was rapidly spreading around the world, and in mid-March, American life suddenly shut down. The COVID-19 pandemic altered our lives and our culture in lasting ways.

The Pew Research Center looked closely at the impact of the pandemic five years later by surveying almost 10,000 Americans in October. The results found 72% of respondents said the pandemic drove the country apart.

Here & Now's Scott Tong speaks with Alec Tyson, an associate director of research at Pew Research Center, about the survey and the partisan divides it found.

This segment aired on March 6, 2025.

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