The pandemic is sometimes referred to as a “mass disabling event,” and it’s not hard to see why: our bodies weakened by Long COVID, our cities burdened with empty buildings, our children struggling after years of lost schooling. In this excerpt from his new book,2020, sociologist Eric Klinenberg investigates the origins of all that dysfunction. But he also finds a few bright spots in the story of that dark year, including the transformation of Nuala O’Doherty, a former lawyer in the Manhattan DA’s office who founded COVID Care Neighborhood Network, a mutual-aid organization in Jackson Heights. Recently, O’Doherty has embarked on an incredible second (or really third) act: using her organization to help thousands of asylum seekers who have arrived in New York in the past two years. It’s a small, good change to stack up against all the bad ones that the pandemic brought — and one way our city has gotten a little bit better since 2020.