2021 Context*

*Before digging into the information on this page, please read the narrative provided in the Annual Context Overview where you will find an important explanation that contextualizes the contextual information!

2021 SURVEY CONTEXT

The 2021 survey was fielded throughout the month of March. We list here factors that occurred the year prior and up through the survey period. Accordingly, for the 2021 survey the contextual factors presented range from January 2020 - March 2021, in loose chronological order. Throughout this time, the Covid-19 pandemic was at the forefront. People were still operating in an environment of ambiguity, although perhaps less extremely so, and were still filled with complex emotions and concerns. Leaders and leadership at all levels and in all sectors remained in the spotlight during the ongoing crisis.

• First impeachment trial of President Trump began (Jan 2020)

• Covid-19 crisis began when Wuhan, China went on lockdown; in crisis and confusion, people across the globe began to look to leaders for guidance (Jan 2020)

• First case of Covid-19 in US confirmed by Center for Disease Control; White House announced task force to monitor and contain Covid-19; travel bans began to be put into effect (Jan 2020)

• Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, announced they would step back as senior members of the Royal Family (Jan 2020)

• World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak an international public health emergency (Jan 2020)

• United Kingdom officially left the European Union (Jan 2020)

• First Covid-19 death in US (Feb 2020)

• US evacuated the Princess Diamond cruise ship due to Covid-19 (Feb 2020)

• President Trump acquitted in first impeachment trial (Feb 2020)

• Ahmaud Arbery, while jogging in a Georgia community, was chased by a former police officer and his son, then shot and killed by the son (Feb 2020)

• Harvey Weinstein found guilty of criminal sex act and rape (Feb 2020)

• Growing criticism of US government’s handling of Covid-19; Vice President Mike Pence placed in charge of government response (Feb 2020)

• World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a global pandemic (Mar 2020)

• Significant strain on healthcare and emergency services and providers began due to the Covid-19 outbreak; first significant supply chain disruption occurs (Mar 2020)

• Covid-19 repercussions included schools being mostly online, many people working from homes, sports and other in-person activities very limited, public transportation impacted, oil prices plummeting, and significant supply chain disruption for most of 2020; however, in March it was widely believed that the crisis would not last more than a few weeks or months

• Major stock market crash due to Covid-19 (Mar 2020)

• Tensions flared in US throughout 2020 among people with different beliefs about the true nature of the pandemic and how to handle it

• New York sent National Guard into city with 108 Covid-19 cases (Mar 2020)

• Leaders of nations responded drastically different to the pandemic throughout 2020

• US Presidential primary elections took place (Mar 2020)

• Breonna Taylor fatally shot by Louisville, Kentucky police officers (Mar 2020)

• Continued migration pressure on the US southern border and immigration system

• Racial tensions sparked by murder of George Floyd (May 2020); recently preceded by murders of Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Ahmaud Arbery and Breona Taylor, and followed by Jacob Blake in August 2020

• Black Lives Matter movement at the forefront throughout 2020, including taking down statues around the world that represented colonization

• Protests and conversations about social justice and equality went global

• Rayshard Brooks fatally shot by Atlanta, Georgia police officer in parking lot (June 2020)

• US Supreme court ruled that federal civil rights law protects gay, lesbian and transgender workers; two conservative Justices side with four liberal justices (June 2020)

• US Supreme Court blocked Trump administration’s attempt to end program that protects immigrants brought to US as children from deportation (June 2020)

• US withdrew from World Health Organization (June 2020)

• Summer Olympics to be held in Japan were postponed (June 2020)

• US Supreme Court provided a ruling that would allow employers who have religious or moral objections to deny contraception coverage mandated by the Obama-administration’s Affordable Care Act (July 2020)

• US Postmaster General outlined new US Postal Service procedures that led to mail delivery delays across the country; 20 states planned to file lawsuits claiming the Postmaster was illegally changing mail procedures ahead of the 2020 presidential election when the pandemic would necessitate high reliance on mail-in-ballots; Postmaster responded by suspending changes until after election (July 2020)

• John Lewis, an American civil rights leader and politician, died (July 2020)

• President Trump signed executive orders for Covid-19 relief; one order provided up to $400 in enhanced unemployment benefits with states required to cover 25% (Aug 2020)

• US Senate Intelligence Committee released its final counterintelligence report explaining Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election and the Trump campaign’s welcoming of Russia’s help (Aug 2020)

• Alexei Navalny, critic of Vladimir Putin, was poisoned with a nerve agent while on flight from Tomsk to Moscow (Aug 2020)

• Wide-spread fires begin in California, Oregon, and Colorado (Aug 2020)

• Jacob Blake shot multiple times in the back by Wisconsin police officers while getting into his SUV (Aug 2020)

• President Trump admitted that he knew Covid-19 was dangerous and highly contagious, and publicly played down the danger (Sept 2020)

• City of Louisville, Kentucky agreed to pay Breonna Taylor’s family $12 million to settle wrongful death lawsuit (Sept 2020)

• Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg died; replaced by Amy Coney Barrett, marking a significant ideological shift in the Supreme Court (Sept 2020)

• Domestic terrorism plot to kidnap Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer; 13 people charged (Oct 2020)

• Google sued by Trump administration; largest antitrust case against a tech company in more than two decades (Oct 2020)

• Pope Francis endorsed same-sex civil unions in an interview for a documentary (Oct 2020)

• US left the Paris Climate Agreement while global climate crisis persists (Nov 2020)

• Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in the US presidential election (Nov 2020)

• Biden’s running mate, Kamala Harris, was the first woman, the first Black American, and the first South Asian American to be elected to the vice presidency (Nov 2020)

• Covid-19 vaccine roll-out began with hopes that things would be ‘normal’ by summer, which didn’t happen but at the time of the survey there was some hope and many frustrations with vaccine requirements (Dec 2020)

• President Trump signed into law a $2 trillion stimulus package to avert government shutdown (Dec 2020)

• US government announced that a massive and sophisticated cyberattack, likely conducted by Russian intelligence services, had penetrated the computer networks of a range of US government agencies and corporations (Dec 2020)

• China pledged to be carbon neutral by 2060 and decrease use by 65% in next decade; Japan pledged to be carbon neutral by 2050; the EU promised to decrease by 55% in the next decade

• China and the US sent probes to Mars, and SpaceX began explicitly increasing and testing their technology in space

• China took multiple measures in its push to become more of a leader in world politics

• Concern that Iran may be within a month of having weapons-grade uranium, with no nuclear agreement

• Fatal drug overdose deaths surged during Covid-19, driven primarily by fentanyl, methamphetamine, and cocaine

• “Lockdown” was the word of 2020 according to Collins English Dictionary

• Global climate crisis continued as a major issue while attention diverted by the pandemic

• People leaned toward hope of coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, yet frustration was evident as many news headlines and leaders were talking of “getting back to normal” (early 2021)

• Global numbers of Covid-19 deaths well beyond 2 million in Jan 2021; US surpassed 500,000 deaths in Feb 2021

• President Trump and many of his supporters refused to accept the presidential defeat and continued to seek ways to overturn election results (Jan 2021)

• Jan. 6th insurrection on the US Capitol

• President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took office (Jan. 20, 2021)

• Rep. Nancy Pelosi reelected as House Speaker (Jan 2021)

• A Kentucky police department fired two detectives linked to the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor (Jan 2021)

• A Wisconsin county district attorney determined that a police officer would not face charges in the shooting of Jacob Blake (Jan 2021)

• President Biden signed an executive order to repeal a Trump-administration ban on most transgender Americans joining the military (Jan 2021)

• Former President Trump’s second impeachment trial began; the Senate voted to acquit (Feb 2021)

• As winter storms and freezing temperatures blasted across Texas, leaving millions in a state of emergency, Texas Senator Ted Cruz faced backlash because of departing to Cancun, Mexico (Feb 2021)

• President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan that provided a $1.9 trillion Covid-19 economic relief package (Mar 2021)

• The city of Minneapolis agreed to pay the estate of George Floyd $27 million after the city council unanimously voted to settle a lawsuit with Floyd’s family (Mar 2021)

• A gunman killed eight people, including six Asian women, at three Atlanta-area spas (Mar 2021)

• A gunman killed ten people, including a Boulder police officer, at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado (Mar 2021)

• Georgia passed an election bill that imposed new voter identification requirements for absentee ballots, empowered state officials to take over local election boards, limited the use of ballot drop boxes and made it illegal to approach voters in line to give them food and water (Mar 2021)

• Oprah Winfrey interviewed Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and Prince Harry, during which the couple criticize Britain’s royal institution and explain why they left royal life (Mar 2021)

• Daunte Wright was shot and killed by a Minnesota police officer during a traffic stop; the officer was eventually found guilty of first- and second-degree manslaughter (Mar 2021)

• Large container ship got stuck in Suez Canal, further contributing to supply chain issues (Mar 2021)