Two years ago, as April arrived in Virginia, the people of Gloucester and Mathews were mostly in lockdown, looking for masks, tracking the headlines and wondering when COVID-19 would come for us.

We hoped our quarantine would be brief. Little did we know.

Here are some headlines about Covid from April 1, 2020. Read them, reflect, and wonder what might have been, had the world waked up earlier to the threat of this new virus. Probably it would have proved impossible to stop; but if people knew then what they know now, might they have tried harder to contain the beast?

CNN told us: “There have been at least 917 new coronavirus deaths reported in the U.S.”

The New York Times: “Coronavirus May Kill 100,000 to 240,000 in U.S. Despite Actions.”

The Week: “U.S. coronavirus deaths surge above 4,000.”

A few months later, to widespread disbelief, some scientists predicted that Covid would still be pandemic in two years’ time … just where we are today.

Gloucester has recorde...