Reflecting On Year One Of The Coronavirus Pandemic
Like many of you, I have been reflecting on the realization that this week marks one year since the beginning of what would be one of the hardest years of any of our lives. As a community, and as people, we have been forever changed by the COVID-19 pandemic. What started out as a two-week quarantine turned quickly into twelve difficult months of sacrifice, courage, patience, and isolation for everyone across the country.
In the early months of the pandemic, we were all trying to make the best of a tough situation while remaining hopeful that solutions and aid would appear soon. Our hope for a fast solution and quick return to normalcy seems like a distant dream that helped us get through those first few weeks. At home, we were struggling with grocery shortages, masking protocols, business operating rules, and the inability to spend time together, while in the larger community the positivity rate continued to climb and with it the death rate and the unemployment rate.
To cope with what was looking like a tough situation, we turned to simple joys to help us all get through. Some learned to cook new dishes and bake new cakes, others dedicated themselves to becoming healthier, while still others challenged themselves by reading more. Whatever your simple joy was, I hope you continue to embrace it. We still need those simple joys in our world and sometimes discovering a new one can help us get through even the darkest of days.
As weeks turned into months, and the collective reality of the situation dawned on us, we embraced new technology to re-create our business atmospheres and our social lives. Zoom meetings, Zoom cocktail hours, Zoom everything became the norm at this point. Admittedly, it is a poor replacement for sharing a beverage with friends or laughing with family. However, it was, and is, the safest way to continue to interact with people who are not in our COVID-19 bubbles. So, we embraced it and tried to make it work.
Meanwhile, healthcare workers across the country were facing their worst nightmares. Death tolls were increasing dramatically, beds and ventilators were in short supply and aid from the federal government was slow to occur as a “state driven strategy” was being unveiled. Meanwhile, businesses were shuttering their doors and trying to adapt to new strict rules. Many making their first attempts at delivery or pick-up services. A trend that would last to this very day.
By this point, sometime in May crossing into June, the hope was that the summer heat would help combat the virus and that we would be able to have a quasi-normal summer. That was not to be. Positivity rates did decline, and outdoor dining was embraced. Seating was limited and time-constrained, but some interaction was better than none. Small, socially distanced events were organized to help celebrate Memorial Day and other national holidays. However, the relief of the summer was fleeting at best.
At this point, several months in, families were feeling the strain of kids at home all. the. time. Parents were trying to be everything all in one moment. Zoom calls at 10 a.m., 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. with an hour of lunch for kids. But, as we all know, children are not used to schedules and they do not care that you have a very important meeting with your boss. This became a blessing and a curse, and it stretched everyone’s mental capacity. Unsurprisingly, alcohol sales hit a new high.
As the late summer months bore down on us, the question of how schooling would be addressed became the predominate topic of discussion. I do not envy any school board director who had the difficult task of navigating this pandemic. Opening schools and executing virtual learning is filled with tough decisions that any reasonable person would struggle with, and I thank every single one of the School Board Directors at North Penn for their passion, patience and persistence throughout this pandemic.
As August ends, new cases of COVID-19 begin to climb again, and it becomes clear that the fall will become as difficult as the spring was — even moreso. Locally, we were finding new ways to celebrate our healthcare workers. Ringing bells, driving by healthcare facilities with sirens and horns, just trying to give them a little joy to know that we care and that we appreciate their service to all of us. They were, and are still, saving lives every single day.
Meanwhile, a new challenge emerged with the murder of George Floyd and the protests and riots that followed. People were living on a knife’s edge due to the stress of the pandemic and the battle for equity and equality brings the entire country to the boiling point. Locally, we embrace the conversation. Protests occur on Main Street and in Memorial Park with the community speaking out against racism and asking for change. We delivered on that change by deploying body worn cameras and adjusting our use of force policy. Additionally, our Lansdale Human Relations Commission remains dedicated to helping us manage instances of racism and bigotry in our community. Lansdale’s community comes together to show that we will continue to grow, and we are dedicated to a future that embraces all of our community members and is not a place where the seeds of hate can be sown or allowed to fester.
Entry into the fall and winter months brings with it an alarming spike of cases of COVID-19. Summer re-emergence gives way to the return of a fall lockdown with travel between states once again prohibited. Halloween and Thanksgiving are interrupted with families either not getting together or trying to re-create these events digitally. Residents are exhausted and a presidential election weighs heavily on everyone as the country becomes bitterly divided over what our future should be. Businesses continue to get by with little relief and some are preparing for what is being described on the news as the darkest days of the pandemic.
December is, by all accounts, the deadliest month of the pandemic, cancelling any lingering hopes of a Christmas holiday with extended family members. Online shopping is now the predominate form of gift-giving and the post office, already struggling to keep up, is completely overwhelmed with mail. Families are asking themselves how much more of this can they take and will 2021 be any better at all?
As we enter 2021, there is renewed hope that the end of the pandemic is in sight. A vaccine is on the horizon and will begin distribution in the months to follow. This small hope buoys most people’s belief that the new year will bring better fortunes to all of us. The political climate remains unsettled. A riotous mob of insurrectionist storm the capitol killing and injuring capitol police members. The President of the United States is impeached, again, though not removed from office. Joe Biden is inaugurated, and the country begins to slowly move forward from the Trump administration and the vaccine begins to be fully distributed to across the country to frontline workers and those at the highest risk for severe reaction to the virus. Meanwhile, new variants are emerging due to mutations in the virus which are more contagious and, potentially, more lethal.
Then the snow arrived. For weeks, Lansdale was buried in the largest snowfalls we have seen in five years, creating new challenges related to parking and code blue shelter operation.
Which brings us to where we are now.
At the beginning of this pandemic, I wrote about how I was hopeful. How I believed that by banding together, our community could see this event through. I still believe that today. Lansdale is a tough, persistent, and passionate community that looks out for each other. Throughout this year, community members came together to hand out toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and cleaning supplies. We donated our time to one another, and we stood by one another as we all struggled with our mental and physical health. I am deeply proud of our community and all that we have managed to overcome.
Looking forward, we will need to continue down this path of fellowship. The pandemic is not over, but hopefully the worst is behind us and we will be able to celebrate together, arm in arm.