Five Years Later: Lessons Learned From COVID-19 March 19, 2025 In late 2019 and early 2020 news of a novel coronavirus began to spread. Federal, state and local health authorities and systems, including Samaritan Health Services, braced themselves and prepared to meet the challenges head on. Though, in some ways, the COVID-19 pandemic is an experience we’d like to forget, we learned many lessons about staying healthy, caring for each other and trusting in our abilities. Here are just a few: Face Masks Are Pretty Handy Face masks were identified early on as an effective way to stop the spread of the virus as it traveled through the air. At first, health systems were compelled to reserve supplies of medical-grade face masks for health care providers on the front lines of patient care. Our communities rallied with local businesses and others who donated disposable masks to our hospitals and clinics while the craftier among us sewed thousands of cloth masks to give to whomever needed them. (Since then, cloth masks have been deemed insufficient for protection from airborne viruses.) The use of face masks among the general population to prevent the spread of respiratory illnesses like COVID-19, influenza and RSV is more common in the U.S. than before the pandemic. People at high-risk of severe illness use face masks to protect themselves when out in public, and others use masks to protect those around them from their own sniffles and sneezes. Even when not at high risk of severe disease, many people continue to use face masks in crowded settings, especially during respiratory virus season. Bonus Lesson: Some people have found that face masks are handy in other situations as well. Consider using one when cleaning the cat box or when hay fever strikes. Vaccines Are Powerful Tools As soon as COVID-19 vaccines were available, people scrambled to get them. Local health agencies and caregivers stepped up to administer the vaccines and many in our communities were vaccinated to protect loved ones as well as themselves. This helped reduce the spread of the virus and, for vaccinated people who did get COVID-19, reduced the severity of the disease, the chances of long-term symptoms, and helped avoid hospitalization and death. Though the rate of vaccination for COVID-19 is no longer as high, it remains a useful tool for anyone who wants to avoid getting very sick from the virus and to protect vulnerable loved ones. Bonus Lesson: For some people, COVID-19 vaccines and mRNA technology were controversial. Conversations about how vaccines are made, how they work, their proven benefits and vaccination recommendations were brought to the forefront and continue to serve as a reminder for many to get up to date on their vaccines. Infection Prevention Is a Group Effort The pandemic reminded us that basic infection prevention measures can protect ourselves and others from respiratory viruses. No one likes to get sick and miss school, work or fun activities. Reminders to wash hands, cover our coughs and sneezes, keep our distance from others if they show signs of illness and stay home when sick were repeated so often that these habits now are more reliably ingrained. We also learned the value of a rapid COVID-19 test. It is not uncommon for people, even if they have no symptoms, to proactively test themselves at home for COVID-19 before visiting vulnerable family or friends. Bonus Lesson: While loading up on cold medicine and showing up to work when sick might have been considered heroic or even expected in some settings in the past, it is increasingly frowned upon if you don’t stay home when you’re sick. Downtime can be hard, but the pandemic also underscored the joy of binge-watching our favorite shows, so enjoy that perk by staying home and resting up until you’re no longer contagious. Telehealth Is Convenient & Effective Out of necessity, health care providers and patients embraced telehealth more than ever early in the pandemic. Patients continue to appreciate it because telehealth is so convenient. Connecting with your health care provider via your computer or smart phone is efficient and effective for many types of routine health care visits, and in some cases, telehealth helps us get care sooner than an appointment at a clinic. Because of this, telehealth increases access to care, which is an important development when many health care provider schedules are full. Bonus Lesson: With telehealth options, loading the kids in the car or taking time away from work can be a thing of the past when getting care for many routine health concerns and minor illnesses. We Take Our Mental Health Seriously When we stayed home so much of the time in the early months of the pandemic, we came face-to-face more continuously and intensely with our loved ones – and ourselves. Anxiety about the virus, depression from isolation or boredom and the stress of changed routines helped us recognize the need to pay closer attention to our mental health. These factors often worsened existing mental health struggles. Telehealth gave us a way to access mental health care and support from home. While telehealth for mental health care might not be the best option for everyone, more than half of mental health care appointments are now done online. Bonus Lesson: Stigma around mental health concerns continues to decrease and it is much more common for people to seek care. When so many of us are working on healing or bettering ourselves and improving our experiences, the cumulative effect could be profound. It Takes a Village The pandemic reminded us of the importance of community and being there for each other. Whether borrowing things from neighbors when supply chains ran short or dropping by with chicken soup when friends were sick, even as we were isolated at home, we depended on one another. In health care, agencies pulled together to meet the needs of the community and realized how interdependent we are. We partnered with county health departments to operate mass vaccination clinics, teams of Samaritans coordinated a rapid response to set up drive-through COVID-19 testing centers, special infection prevention measures were launched in our facilities and strategies to meet supply-chain demands were implemented. Regional agencies and organizations have established stronger working relationships with each other that will serve our communities into the future. Bonus Lesson: We learned we can depend on each other and that working together, we can do big things and make a difference. We Are Resourceful, Creative & Resilient We came together during very challenging times and somehow, we came through it stronger and more connected to each other. Sadly, we must acknowledge that we lost loved ones to COVID-19, and others still struggle with long-COVID symptoms. Though facing scary, unprecedented times, we grew gardens and took up new hobbies. We tackled home improvement projects and read more books (and, yes, we binge watched a lot of shows). We found ways to make working or attending school from home effective and productive. We embraced technology that brought us together when we could not be in the same room. We got take-out and went to restaurants with outdoor seating. We were creative with outdoor, socially distanced family get-togethers and did everything we could to keep our loved ones and communities safe. We emerged with a greater appreciation for each other and our own abilities. We prepared ourselves to meet future challenges with increased resourcefulness, creativity and resilience. Bonus Lesson: We no longer assume we need to do things “the way they have always been done.” We learned there are often alternative ways that are equally or even more effective to achieve our goals. We learned to trust our resourcefulness and creativity, and we and our communities are stronger for it.
