When 2020 passes into the history books, it will carry more superlatives than a high school yearbook — and none of them good. Most deadly, hottest, most stressful, worst. It is not your imagination: By a host of measures, 2020 was the worst year many Americans will have experienced in their lifetimes. It was a year of loss, of anxiety, of poverty and of disease. Recovering from the last 12 months is likely to define the entire decade ahead. Americans will remember this year by the pandemic that has infected millions of friends, neighbors and family members. As of publication, nearly 18 million Americans have tested positive for the coronavirus, a number that is growing by a quarter-million a day.