Koji Sasahara/Associated Press
Early March may feel as distant today as the second Ice Age, but Demetrious Johnson instantly recalls the moment he heard the news.
More and more people were talking about an incurable disease called COVID-19 and wondering how it might manifest on American soil. The country's first official case of COVID-19—a man in Washington state—had already been documented, and now there was news of the first major outbreak. The site of the outbreak, Life Care Center of Kirkland, solidified Washington state as the de facto ground zero for the coronavirus in the United States.