David Leonhardt will take your questions about the new normal and hear your Tiny Love Stories on hope and renewal, read by the Oscar nominee Ariana DeBose.
It’s a word that has expressed what many have been longing for since around March 2020: normalcy.
And it’s being used much more often now.
While the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is more contagious than previous ones, the share of severe cases has been lower, thanks largely to vaccinations. New cases have been declining in a growing list of places. Some governors say Americans will need to learn how to live with the virus.
But what will that mean? And when will it be? Is this moment different from previous glimmers of hope?
Hear the latest from two public health researchers and physicians, Dr. Monica Gandhi and Dr. Robert Wachter of the University of California, San Francisco. Gandhi and Wachter have done extensive work communicating the risks of Covid-19 to the public, particularly on Twitter, but their stances sometimes differ: Gandhi tends to embrace a quicker return to normal while Wachter is more cautious. They’ll take your questions live.
Does a possible new state of the world mean renewed levels of social interaction, relationships and even love? Daniel Jones and Miya Lee, Modern Love editors, and Anna Martin, host of the Modern Love podcast, will join us to explore optimism through our readers’ own Tiny Love Stories: short, true tales of love, with the theme of hope and renewal. Ariana DeBose, who was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in Steven Spielberg’s remake of “West Side Story,” will read a selection of her and our editors’ favorite reader submissions.
We hope you’ll join us.