It’s been five years since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic – five years since quarantines, virtual meetings and ripped-up families became commonplace.
While many have come to feel that COVID is a thing of the past, many aspects of our lives continue to change as a result of this first pandemic of our century.
This week, Stateside presents a podcast special, Revival: How COVID-19 changed us, reflecting on how the pandemic unfolded, and how we might lean into the challenges that remain. Everyone who’s lived through a pandemic has a story to tell about the epidemiological mystery, of fear and uncertainty, discovery, frustration, and grief.
For our first episode, we tackled what may be COVID-19’s most obvious disruptions: change in the health care system.
Quarantine origins
Saeed Khan, an associate professor in Near East and Asian Studies and Global Studies and also the director of the Center for Study of Citizenship at Wayne State University, told the story of Ibn Sina. The physician and philosopher practiced medicine during the Samanid Empire, a thousand years before the COVID-19 pandemic. Ibn Sina’s contributions shaped how modern medicine approached crisis.
“Part of what made Ibn Sina as successful as he was, was the recognition by others that he simply knew more than they did, and that there was a trust in what he had to say," Khan said. "There was a trust in the methodology that he used to get there.”
The embrace of Ibn Sina’s methods stands in stark contrast to the American experience of the past five years, as many at risk resisted medical advice on masking and COVID vaccines.
“Is that a serious question?"
Stateside also spoke with Christina Hanson, a cardiac nurse who cared for many COVID-19 patients in her hometown in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
Beginning in 2020, her unit was a living lab for the problems of treating COVID in the early years of the pandemic, from clinical procedures to staffing issues.
“The manager at the time went around to all of the nurses and asked them, 'Do you feel comfortable taking Covid patients?'" Hanson said. "And when I was asked that, I looked at her and I said, 'Is that a serious question?'"
Nurses took on jobs others wouldn't, Hanson said. At one point, she was doing housekeeping tasks, drawing labs, and running EKGs, learning in real time what methods would keep her own patients alive.
A moral injury
Hanson spoke openly about conditions in her workplace, patients’ acute isolation, and the long, slow burnout experienced by so many medical professionals.
“I don't think I know anybody that took care of COVID patients during that time that doesn't have some form of either PTSD or anxiety or something,” Hanson said.
Five years later, Hanson is still trying to understand the change that took place.
“I think that a lot of us have boxed up everything that happened during COVID and put it away in a closet and we don't look at it,” she said.
She continues to worry not only about the mental health of medical professionals who weathered the worst of the pandemic, but about the flawed systems that allowed for such a harrowing experience.
“I'm still saying to this day that what we are doing is not sustainable," she said. "It wasn't during Covid, and I kept telling people it would get better, like this isn't normal. And now years down the road, I'm just trying to figure out what normal is because it hasn't gotten better.”
Hear our full conversations with Saeed Khan and Christina Hanson on today's podcast.
