COVID turns 5 amid public health turmoil

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It’s surreal to think that we’ve reached the five-year mark since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic on March 11, 2020. I remember mentioning it to one of my kids’ music teachers that morning, and she asked me the question that so many were wondering: “What is a pandemic?”

As many know all too well, “pandemic” and an array of other scientific terms and agencies became household names almost overnight, including the WHO, the CDC and the NIH.

Those agencies played vital roles in the pandemic response, both individually and through closely coordinated efforts. Their websites became go-to resources for the most up-to-date numbers on COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths, and on how to navigate this new reality.

Ironically, five years later, the ability of these agencies to respond to urgent threats from infectious diseases has been severely hampered by the Trump administration’s slashing of funds, layoff of critical employees and withdrawal from the WHO.

Katherine A. Foss, a health communication scholar, explains that these agencies often work closely together out of the public eye – until a public health crisis occurs. “Without strong, coordinated efforts between public health agencies,” Foss writes, “even small health calamities can escalate into full-blown epidemics or even pandemics, which the world will be far less prepared to handle.”

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