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By Janice Lane Palko
Can you believe that it’s been five years since the start of the COVID pandemic?
It was around this time of the year when we first heard the phrase “two weeks to flatten the curve.” Sadly, the two weeks morphed into years and flattened more than the curve.
My husband and I were on a Caribbean cruise during that February when things began to change. The first were minor. Midway through the cruise, we were no longer allowed to serve ourselves at the buffet, and when we checked in at the airport to come home, we were asked if we had been to China. By the time we got back to Pittsburgh, my sons, who were still living at home at the time, had begun to stock up on supplies as they told us that they had been monitoring Chinese news outlets online and that the Chinese were locking their citizens inside their homes.
The weekend before the lockdowns came in March, we celebrated my granddaughter’s third birthday at a family party. Little did we know that would be the last gathering for a while. That Easter we sat outside on lawn chairs to eat dinner. My youngest son started a new job the day the lockdowns came. He set up an office in his room and didn’t meet a fellow co-worker in person for nearly two years. My other son was sent home to work, and he took over the game room. My husband soon followed and set up shop in the family room. We were all working at home and surprisingly we all got along.
One of the most difficult things was that there was nothing to look forward to, and the days of work blended into the weekend. I’m not a big drinker, so to celebrate the end of the work week, I used to joke that I was going to live it up on Friday and put a straw in my flavored seltzer water.
The way we attended church, school, and entertainment and sporting events changed, if we could attend at all. How we exercised, shopped, sought medical care and socialized changed too—often not for the better.
Aside from the tragic loss of life, I know people who have never recovered. Mental health issues soared and still remain elevated. A February 2025 Pew Research study says “three-quarters of Americans say the COVID-19 pandemic took some sort of toll on their own lives. This includes 27% who say it had a major toll on them and 47% who say it took a minor toll.”
When I inquired about the financial implications of the pandemic, this AI-generated response revealed that the results were worse than I imagined: “The COVID-19 pandemic had a devastating impact on the global economy, including increased poverty and inequality, job losses, and business closures.
Global poverty increased for the first time in a generation.
Income losses were disproportionate, affecting disadvantaged populations the most.
Women, youth, the self-employed, and casual workers with lower education levels were hit hardest.
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