But with so much sweeping change, it can become hard to grasp what this kind of massive upheaval looks like on a personal level.
To get a more detailed picture of Covid-19's impact, W. Kamau Bell caught up with some guests featured in this season of "United Shades of America" -- to hear how they're coping with the crisis.
A farmer fights for his legacy
That included Oklahoma farmer George Roberts, who runs a family operation outside of Wewoka. He spoke with Kamau Bell in 2019 for a "United Shades" episode on the difficulties facing independent family farmers -- particularly those who, like Roberts, are also confronting a history of racism.
When Bell caught up with Roberts again in June, Roberts shared details on how Covid-19 has impacted his family's health and his fight to hold on to their farmland.
A public school teacher navigates the digital divide
When Bell visited Ohio high school teacher Monique Davis for an episode on public education, he said "it looked like she was already burning the candle at both ends, plus the middle, for her students."
Bell recalls Davis' classroom at Shaw High School in East Cleveland being "filled not only with the equipment the school provided, but also many, many things she had either brought from home or bought using her own paycheck."
And during the pandemic, Davis has had to get even more creative.
"We have a digital divide; that's common in our district," Davis told Bell when they spoke in June. "But one of the things I did was to make sure that everything that I offer my kids was something that could be done on their mobile phone... and then our district also offered packets where it was paper and pencil. So you had an option to do it digitally or traditionally. Either way, no matter what your needs were, they were met during this whole crisis."
A gig worker balances grief and parenting
When "United Shades of America" visited Austin, Texas, to report on the gig economy, Bell spoke with independent contractor Vanessa Minton.
A mom of three, Minton "is a trained private chef but needs the flexibility of gig work to better take care of her kids," Bell said. "It should work perfectly, but even before the pandemic it was hard to make ends meet. And despite the fact that she, like a lot of gig workers, is busier than ever, the app companies make it hard for all that business to translate into her paycheck."
When Bell checked in with Minton this summer, she filled him in on how she's dealt with loss and at-home learning in the midst of a rapidly changing gig economy.
A correspondent witnesses a national cry for justice
CNN's Sara Sidner investigates hate in America, and she joined Bell in Pittsburgh as he worked on an episode about White supremacy in the United States.
In June, Sidner and Bell once again talked about race and racism, but through the new lens of Covid-19. Sidner, who spent the first half of the year covering both the pandemic and the waves of protests in response to the killing of George Floyd, said she felt exhausted yet buoyed by the resounding call for true change.
"It has hit people in a different way," she told Bell. "And I think it's twofold: One, we watched a man tortured for more than seven minutes. ... The second thing is coronavirus. We are all at home and our full attention suddenly was focused on this issue, and that is partly, I think, why you saw protests all over the country. ... It felt like a sea change was happening, and I just happened to be in the center of the storm."
A journalist reports on the collision of two pandemics
Bell spent time with another award-winning journalist, The New York Times' Nikole Hannah-Jones, while in production for season five of "United Shades."
Their focus was on reparations, and in light of the pandemic, "all of the inequities that we talked about some months ago are just being brought glaringly to the surface," Hannah-Jones told Bell when they caught up in July.
"You have a viral pandemic that is colliding with a 400-year racial pandemic," Hannah-Jones said, pointing to the statistics of missed mortgage payments, Black workers' economic risks and Covid-19 racial disparities.
As for whether this collision will result in lasting change, Hannah-Jones said she is "worried that we are not going to see the type of change that is necessary. But if there were ever a moment where it's possible, certainly it's now. It's always had to be these really massive and colossal societal ruptures that have led to real, transformative change when it comes to race. And we are in them."
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'United Shades of America': Five reflections on life during Covid-19 - CNN
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