I would guess many COVID stories that could be big were submitted, upvoted, and quickly flagged because they were deemed out of scope. If they were not flagged

I would guess many COVID stories that could be big were submitted, upvoted, and quickly flagged because they were deemed out of scope. If they were not flagged, perhaps one or two could have been among the top 10. But even then I wouldn't be sure about that. For comparison, "Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S." (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25015967 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25015967) was among the top posts and not flagged, because of its historical significance (per dang's comment there). I don't think COVID was less significant, but there was no obvious point in time to focus among many related stories spanning over months, unlike the presidential election that had a single victory moment.