CNN’s Brian Stelter marks the two-year anniversary of the pandemic on his “Reliable Sources” podcast in conversation with KHN Editor-in-Chief Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal and James Hamblin, a former staff writer at The Atlantic. The journalists discuss how society grappled with the trauma of the covid-19 pandemic and the governmental missteps that compounded that trauma.

“Everyone has experienced the suffering of the pandemic in his or her or their own way,” said Rosenthal, “and so much of it feels unnecessary had we had a strong national response.” In particular, Rosenthal cited the failure to track health care workers lost on the front line and toxic politics that undermined public health agencies throughout the country.