By Camille Cobbs
March 2025 marked five years since the world shut down and announced a global pandemic. Does it feel like it’s been five years? We have seen several historic events, elections, economic shifts, and so much more. How has this changed us as a national and global society?
I remember when I first started hearing about COVID-19. I was living in California at the time and having seen swine flu, H1N1, Ebola Virus, and West Nile (just to name a few) in my lifetime, it was easy to feel cautious yet confident that life would go on as normal.
I was wrong. I had never seen city streets so quiet, gone so long without leaving the house, or thought that the order to shelter in place would last so long.
The ‘Zoom happy hours’ and work-from-home life were fun at first, but as days turned into weeks and more people got seriously ill, I realized this was really different.
Over seven million people have died due to COVID-19-related causes. Life as we knew it has changed forever. At the five-year mark, I have found it necessary to reflect on how these years have changed living generations for good. The losses are still hard in many ways. Is there light at the end of this pandemic tunnel? Let’s review the major changes that will affect us for years to come.
Work life
Before we get into the major changes seen by those who work 9-to-5, I have to give a shout-out to the people who became known as essential workers. Despite the order to shelter in place, or the practice of staying home removed from close contact with others, some everyday needs and operations were still necessary. Grocery stores needed staff, nurses and doctors remained on the front line of the pandemic, and operations like garbage pickup and utilities maintained their usual work schedules.
This was a huge ask for these workers, who were required to put their lives at risk every day. The rest of us were formally introduced to Zoom and found ourselves building offices at home. There are pros and cons to work-from-home life. On the one hand, you can optimize your use of time by cutting commutes, get to work in pajamas (with a blazer nearby for those pesky Zoom calls), have the opportunity to spend more time with family, and can squeeze a load of laundry in between tasks.
On the other hand, working from home took a huge toll on people’s mental health. Despite the constant threat of a global pandemic that was causing loved ones to fall sick, many workers had goals to hit and piles of work to get through. Many worked longer hours since the office was now a part of home.
And now, five years later, after workers accommodated the big asks of the workplace and adapted to keep these businesses successful through COVID-19, many are being forced to return to the office.
What did we learn from this experience? What started as general humankindness and an opportunity to change the workforce for good, adding work-life balance to the lives of many, is now being taken away without much cause. Despite having hustled in our homes to make these businesses and government departments operational and profitable through a global pandemic, it seems companies are running out of empathy.
While I want to give a huge shoutout to the companies that have permitted long-term work-from-home or hybrid flexibility for the foreseeable future, I can’t help but side-eye these organizations that are drastically altering the adapted lifestyle they asked for in the first place. What we have learned is that companies are thinking about their profits and success first, and we must act accordingly.
Our trust in medicine (or lack thereof )
Our community has a complicated history with the healthcare system that is still felt to this day. Across the board, black people are disproportionately represented and unsupported in hospitals. We have been victims of harsh experiments, are dying at higher rates under hospital care, and our needs are often dismissed or overlooked.
The COVID-19 vaccine made a quick rise to existence compared to usual. Development of the vaccine was partially in process before the pandemic began, but in most cases, it takes years, if not decades, to study, create, test, and launch a new vaccine to market. People did not trust the one-year turnaround, and our skepticism, especially as black Americans, was pretty valid.
That being said, this was a global pandemic. This was the first time in the 21st century that every resource throughout the world was readily available for science. With the united power of every country’s resources and funding at your disposal… well, imagine the very life-altering things you could do with that.
With global support, fast-tracking a vaccine was well within reach. And we succeeded, with a black female doctor spearheading the team to boot! Yet, to this day, some unvaccinated people will never get the vaccine.
In fact, the process has awakened an anti-vaccine movement that is affecting the upcoming generation. Children are getting sick and dying from diseases that have been dormant for decades. People are refusing hospital care and turning to local holistic workers for treatments tied to their ancestors. The pros and cons go on and on.
Ultimately, there is potential for a well-balanced future. Science is beginning to study holistic treatments and confirm their effectiveness. Hospital discrimination is still a thing, but efforts are still being made to address and limit the mistreatment of black people. After the past five years, we may have inspired some positive change when it comes to medicine. Keep advocating for yourself.
This area may be where the pandemic hit us the hardest, especially in the United States. When it comes to education, the students in K-12th grade are still suffering to this day. Not only did we completely disrupt their social environment and development, but they are also far behind the educational level they should be at for their ages.
Just like adults, students had to stay home, create a virtual classroom, and turn to laptops and iPads for education. Teachers worked tirelessly to educate children through screens, but studies show that the digital classroom simply failed. Today, the average American student is less than halfway to a full recovery after the effects of the pandemic on education.
At this point, fellow parents, I am looking at you. Like many institutions, oppression and neglect are common in the education system, especially for children of color. We have many burdens to bear, and our children’s education is unfortunately adding to the pile.
The education system was failing before the pandemic and has taken a turn for the worse since. For us to set our children up for success, we have to take their education into our own hands. Vett the schools you send your kids to, notice the demographics and success numbers associated with particular groups of people. Help your kids study at home, and don’t be shy about asking for help and support from your community when you have other obligations. Read together. Inspire their love and desire for education. They are our future, and it’s up to us to ensure that it’s bright.
How we support one another
I can’t imagine what the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement would have looked like without the pandemic. The death of George Floyd sparked a global civil rights movement that campaigned for the rights of people – both within the African Diaspora and Indigenous people of color – who have faced the same forms of oppression worldwide.
During the pandemic, our contact with each other was limited, certain businesses were closed, and cities were overall quieter and less congested as people left for more spacious living conditions. For the first time in a long time, our distractions were limited, and Black Lives Matter became one of the largest civil rights protests in global history. Everyone showed up. We saw our allies come out and fight against the discrimination that we have been aware of and experienced since this country’s founding. It was a game-changer, and we witnessed legislation passed, Diversity, “Equity, and Inclusion prioritized,” and other major changes that felt like real progress.
Now, the other side has the stage. All of that progress seems to be deteriorating before our eyes, with businesses rolling back DEI efforts, legislation reversing the protection of our rights, and new laws going into place that seem to date back to pre-1960s civil rights movements. Even while we made progress during BLM, we witnessed the protection promised by Rowe v. Wade overturned, putting women’s health and rights at risk. It’s hard not to feel very discouraged today.
But here is what we know. We know that America has always struggled with change. We have been here before. What we do now is what our ancestors did. We learn from what has passed – write down the stories from your pandemic experiences and never stop saying George Floyd and Breonna Taylor’s names.
We know that by staying grounded and unmoving in the face of adversity, change is inevitable despite all attempts to stall it. Together, strongly united behind any cause, we can create the change we wish to see. Like time, we keep moving forward.
