The week we'll never forget

Also: Coverage questions for the new postpartum depression pill [Donate ❤️]( [View in Browser](  March 12, 2024 Hi CommonHealth reader, Four years ago this week, the emerging threat of COVID-19 suddenly felt more real. Then-Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker announced a [state of emergency](. The World Health Organization [declared the illness a pandemic](. Businesses and schools [started to close](. COVID quickly began to upend our lives. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that week. I was seven months pregnant and getting ready for my upcoming baby shower. At work, I was reporting several stories that had nothing to do with respiratory viruses. Within days, as the world began to shut down, I canceled the shower, and my reporting turned to nothing but COVID. What was then a novel coronavirus has now touched just about everyone and taken a tremendous toll, contributing to nearly [22,000 deaths]( and more than [118,000 hospitalizations]( in Massachusetts alone. We’ve had to learn to live with the ups and downs of COVID. And while the virus is still with us, it’s not as dangerous and disruptive as it was in 2020. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [recently loosened precautions]( treating COVID [much like other common respiratory illnesses.]( On this anniversary of the pandemic, I reached out to several experts who have been on the front lines of studying and fighting COVID since its early days to ask for their reflections on the last four years, and where we are today. Here’s what they told me, lightly edited and condensed: Shira Doron, hospital epidemiologist,Tufts Medical Center: When I think back to what was happening four years ago, I think of it as a time when we were doing both too much and too little. We should not have allowed prolonged school closures, restrictions on the use of playgrounds and beaches, or extended delays on elective medical care to occur. At the same time, we should have had widespread testing much earlier, and we should have been more prepared to tackle supply chain and capacity shortages. Bill Hanage, associate professor of epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health: Lots of very intense memories both professional and personal, given the far-reaching impact of the pandemic on all our lives. And the truly ghastly memory of knowing the outline of what was coming at us, and trying to convince people of it. Sandeep Jubbal, infectious disease physician, UMass Memorial Medical Center: The outset of the pandemic was chaotic and stressful due to lack of treatment and vaccines, and the spread of misinformation. But the silver lining was the unprecedented global collaboration, knowledge sharing, and application of cutting-edge technology that allowed the rapid development of treatments and vaccines. Without these tools, our world would have been a very different place with mortality numbers beyond imagination. Cassandra Pierre, infectious disease physician and associate hospital epidemiologist, Boston Medical Center: Over time, I've observed people tune out the ongoing impact of COVID — for their own sanity, and the need to move forward. The fact that the majority of hospital admissions and deaths occur among the elderly and the immunocompromised may have made COVID more predictable, tame and potentially ignorable. But the elderly and immunocompromised remain essential members of our community and our own families — and even the young and healthy remain vulnerable to complications like long COVID. COVID is still impacting us, even if we're not acknowledging it. ​ You can [read more of their comments here](. And don’t miss [this recent Radio Boston conversation]( with Dr. Rochelle Walensky, former head of the CDC, and other experts. Priyanka Dayal McCluskey Senior Health Reporter [Follow]( Support the news  This Week's Must Reads [There's a new prescription pill for postpartum depression. How will coverage work?]( A prescription pill to treat postpartum depression hit the market in December, but most insurers do not yet have a policy on how patients can access it or when they will pay for it. [Read more.]( [There's a new prescription pill for postpartum depression. How will coverage work?]( A prescription pill to treat postpartum depression hit the market in December, but most insurers do not yet have a policy on how patients can access it or when they will pay for it. [Read more.]( [The U.S. prison population is rapidly graying. 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